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An internet-based logistics management system for enterprise chains
N.Prindezis,
C.T.Kiranoudis
School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University, 15780 Athens,
Greece
Received 13 September 2003; received in revised form 20 December 2003; accepted
27 January
Available online 10 December
Abstract
This paper presents an Internet-Based Logistics Management System to coordinate
and disseminate tasks and related information for solving the heterogeneous vehicle
routing problem using appropriate metaheuristic techniques, for use in enterprise
chain net works.Its architecture involves a JAVA Web applet equipped with
interactive communication capabilities between peripheral software tools.The system
was developed in distributed software fashion technology for all computer platforms
utilizing a Webbrowser, focusing on the detailed road network of Athens and the
needs of the Athens Central Food Market enterprises.2004 Elsevier Lt
D.All rights
reserve
D.
Keywords :
Decision support system; e-Logistics; Transportation; Vehicle routing
problem
1.Introduction
Enterprise chains are the business model of the present and future regarding markets
that involve small and medium company sizes.Clearly, grouping activities towards a
focused target facilitates an understandably improved market penetration guaranteed
by a successful trade mark of a leading company in the fiel
D.Several collaboration
models that basically include franchising are introduced as a part of this integrated
process.When such a network is introduced in order to exploit a commercial idea or
business initiative and subsequently expanded as market penetration grows, several
management issues arise regarding the operations of the entire network.Such a
network is the ideal place for organizing and evaluating in a more centralized way
several ordinary operations regarding supply chain and logistics Infact, tools
developed for organizing management processes and operational needs of each
individual company, can be developed in a more centralized fashion and the services
provided by the tool can be offered to each network member to facilitate transactions
and tackle operations similarly.Web-based applications are an ideal starting place for
developing such applications.Typically such systems serve as a central depot for
distributing common services in the field of logistics.The commercial application is
stored in a central server and services are provided for each member of the group.A
prototype of such a server is described in a previous work (Prindezis, Kiranoudis, &
Marinos-Kouris,2003).This paper presents the completed inter net system that is
installed in the central web server of the Athens Central Food Market that deals with
the integrated problem of distribution for 690 companies that comprise a unique
logistics and retail chain of enterprises.The needs of each company are underlined
and the algorithms developed are described within the unified internet environment.
The problem solved and services provided for each company is the one involving
distribution of goods through a heterogeneous fleet of trucks.New insights of the
metaheuristics employed are provide
D.A characteristic case study is presented to
illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for a real-world problem of
distribution through the detailed road network of Athens.
2.Distribution through heterogeneous vehicle fleets
The fleet management problem presented in this paper requires the use of a
heterogeneous fleet of vehicles that distribute goods through a network of clients
(Tarantilis, Kiranoudis, & Vassiliadis, 2003, 2004).Therefore, the system was
designed in order to automatically generate vehicle routes (which vehicles should de-
liver to which customers and in which order), using rational, quantitative, spatial and
non-spatial information and minimizing simultaneously the vehicle cost and the total
distance travelled by the vehicles, subject to the following constraints:
l each vehicle has a predetermined load capacity, typically different from all other
vehicles comprising the fleet (heterogeneous nature),
l the capacity of a vehicle cannot be exceeded,
l a single vehicle supplies each customers demand,
l the number of vehicles used is predetermine
D.
The problem has an obvious commercial value and has drawn the attention of OR
community.Its great success can be attributed to the fact that it is a very interesting
problem both from the practical and theoretical points of view.Regarding the
practical point of view, the distribution problem involved definitely plays a central
role in the efficiency of the operational planning level of distribution management,
producing economical routes that contribute to the reduction of distribution costs,
offering simultaneously significant savings in all related expenses (capital, fuel costs,
driver salaries).Its Importance in the practical level, motivated in tense theoretical
work and the development of efficient algorithms.
For the problem by academic researchers and professional societies in OR/MS,
resulting in a number of papers concerning the development of a number of Vehicle
Routing Information Systems (VRIS) for solving the problem.The problem discussed
is an NP-hard optimization problem, that is to say the global optimum of the problem
can only be revealed through an algorithm of exponential time or space complexity
with respect to problem size.Problems of this type are dealt with heuristic or
metaheuristic techniques.Research on the development of heuristic algorithms
(Tarantilis & Kiranoudis, 2001,2002a, 2002b) for the fleet management problem has
made considerable progress since the first algorithms that were proposed in the early
60s.Among them, tabu search is the champion (Laporte, Gendreau, Potvin, &
Semet,2000).The most powerful tabu search algorithmsare now capable of solving
medium size and even largesize instances within extremely small computational
environments regarding load and time.On the algorithmic side, time has probably
come to concentrate on the development of faster, simpler (with few parameters) and
more robust algorithms, even if this causes a small loss in quality solution.These
attributes are essential if an algorithm is to be implemented in a commercial package.
The algorithm beyond the system developed is of tabu search nature.As mentioned
before, since the algorithms cannot reveal the guaranteed global optimum, the time
that an algorithm is left to propose a solution to the problem is of utmost importance
to the problem.Certainly, there is a trade-off between time expected for the induction
of the solution and its quality.This part was implemented in a straightforward way.If
the system is asked by the user to produce a solution of very high quality instantly,
then an aggressive strategy is to be implemente
D.If the user relaxes the time of
solution to be obtained, that is to say if the algorithm is left to search the solution
space more effciently, then there is room for more elaborate algorithms.
The algorithm employed has two distinct parts.The first one is a generalized route
construction algorithm that creates routes of very good quality to be improved by the
subsequent tabu phase.The construction algorithm takes into account the peculiarities
of the heterogeneous nature of fleet and the desire of the user to use vehicles of his
own desire, owned or hired, according to his daily needs.
The Generalized Route Construction Algorithm employed, is a two-phase algorithm
where unrouted customers are inserted into already constructed partial solutions.The
set of partial solutions is initially empty, and in this case a seed route is inserted that
contains only the depot.Rival nodes to be inserted are then examine
D.
All routes employed involve single unrouted customers.The insertion procedure
utilizes two criteria c1(i,u,j) and c2(i,u,j) to insert a new customer u between two
adjacent customers i and j of a current partial route.The first criterion finds the best
feasible insertion point (i
* ,j * ) that minimizes the Clark and Wright saving
calculation for inserting a node within this specific insertion point,
C1(i,u,j)=d(I,u)+d(u,j)-d(I,j)
(1)
In this formula, the expression d(k,l) stands for the actual cost involved in covering
the distance between nodes k and l.The Clark and Wright saving calculation
introduced in this phase serves as an appropriate strong intensification technique for
producing initial constructions of extremely good quality, a component of utmost
necessity in tabu improvement procedure.
The second phase involves the identification of the actual best node to be inserted
between the adjacent nodepair (i * ,j
* ) found in the first phase (Solomon, 1987).
From
all rival nodes, the one selected is the one that maximizes the expression
C2 (i * , u, j
* )=[d(0,u)+d(u,0)]- C1(i * , u, j * )
(2)
where 0 denotes the depot node.The expression selected is the travelling distance
directly from/to the depot to/ from the customer and the additional distance expressed
by the first criterion.In all, the first phase of the construction algorithm seeks for the
best insertion point in all possible route seeds and when this is detected, the
appropriate node is inserte
D.If no feasible node is found, a new seed route, containing
a single depot, is inserte
D.
The algorithm iterates until there are no unrouted nodes.It must be stretched that the
way routes are filled up with customers is guided by the desire of the user regarding
the utilization of his fleet vehicles.That is to say, vehicles are sorted according to the
distribution and utilization needs of the dispatcher.Vehicles to be used first (regarding
to user cost aspects and vehicle availability) will be loaded before others that are of
lower importance to the user.Typically, all users interviewed ex