A SA-based Heuristic for the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem

Abstract

This paper focuses on the last phase of logistics system, the distribution problem, and attempts to find the solutions, which can offer the high-level service by minimizing the distribution cost. To be specific, taking the customers' demand in multiple logistics centers into account, we propose a model to minimize the relative distribution cost incurred in proper delivery routes. This kind of problem is referred to as the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP). The MDVRP problem is NP-hard; hence it is impossible to precise solutions in polynomial computation time. In this paper, a new algorithm is developed with employing the meta-heuristics : Simulated Annealing (SA). For the developed algorithm several case studies are examined. As a result, it is found that the method can solve big-scaled multi-depot VRP problems effectively and obtain practically approximate solutions within short computation time.