Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

Abstract

Since distribution activities have great importance for firms supply management is a widely studied concept in many sectors. This study demonstrates an application of a Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (CVRPTW). The problem is in the form of a fixed destination multi depots visited by multi-travelling salesmen and the distance-travel time matrix is assumed to be asymmetric. The objective of the problem is to minimize the longest route time of each vehicle. This is achieved by developing a mixed-integer linear programming model (MILP) for the problem. Additionally since the problem is NP-hard a general heuristic method is developed to solve the problem for larger instances in negligible computational times. Results show that the balance between the individual route times of the vehicles is provided and the time window limit is ensured. The paper also discusses the results and presents concluding remarks.