Adaptive multi-phase approach for solving the realistic vehicle routing problems in logistics with innovative comparison method for evaluation based on real GPS data

ABSTRACT

Transportation management, as a part of the supply chain management, is a complex process that consists of planning and delivering goods to customers. The paper presents a complete multi-phase intelligent and adaptive transportation management system, which includes data collection, parameter tuning, and the heuristic algorithm based on the Tabu search for vehicle routing. The paper describes the procedure for collecting Global Positioning System (GPS) data and analyzing the compliance with the proposed routes based on the data collected. The described routing algorithm is powerful and supports many real-world limitations. An algorithm for the anomaly detection in the GPS data is presented as well as the usage of collected GPS data to improve the future results of the algorithm. The concept was implemented and tested on real data in some of the largest distribution companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The proposed approach resulted with more than satisfactory results in real-world application.

KEYWORDS:

• Vehicle routing problem
• transport optimization
• freight & logistics
• parameter setting problem
• GPS data analysis

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability

The data used to support the findings of this study have been deposited in the online repository https://data.4tu.nl/repository/uuid:6be435d9-c2b4-42e4-a5e2-e683f939b2cb.