Title: Open source business analytics solution for capacitated vehicle routing problem

Authors: Justin Schwartz; Michael A. Womack; Ann Kranz; Burcu Adivar

Addresses: Broadwell College of Business and Economics, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC, USA ' Broadwell College of Business and Economics, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC, USA ' Broadwell College of Business and Economics, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC, USA ' Broadwell College of Business and Economics, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC, USA

Abstract: This study introduces a mathematical formulation and an open source solution to optimise the distribution routes of a multinational FMCG supply chain in an effort to improve delivery times, reduce overhead, streamline its fleets and balance the workload. Combinatorial optimisation is utilised to determine a set of routes that satisfies all customer demands while satisfying all operational constraints and minimising the cost. ODL Studio 1.4.1 was used to process and overlay data points onto a local map of real-world roadways. Solving the CVRP reduced the fleet size, decreased the overall route time by over four hours, eliminated 161 kilometres (25.6%) of daily travel distance and reduced gas consumption by over 3,000 gallons of fuel used each year. Application of this method to all routes will likely produce a synergistic effect as savings will be maximised across all routes and new savings may be acknowledged by the optimisation of interregional distribution.

Keywords: vehicle routing problem; VRP; FMCG supply chain; ODL Studio; OpenStreetMap; open source VRP solver.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2022.123558

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2022 Vol.42 No.1, pp.35 - 52

Received: 05 Sep 2019
Accepted: 20 Dec 2019
Published online: 27 Jun 2022 *

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