TITLE:
Study on the Inventory Routing Problem of Refined Oil Distribution Based on Working Time Equilibrium
AUTHORS:
Zhenping Li, Zhiguo Wu
KEYWORDS:
Working Time Equilibrium, Hard Time Window, Inventory Routing Problem, Mathematical Model, Heuristic Algorithm
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Operations Research,
Vol.6 No.1,
January
13,
2016
ABSTRACT: Taking the distribution route optimization of refined oil as background, this paper studies the inventory routing problem of refined oil distribution based on working time equilibrium. In consideration of the constraints of vehicle capacity, time window for unloading oil, service time and demand of each gas station, we take the working time equilibrium of each vehicle as goal and establish an integer programming model for the vehicle routing problem of refined oil distribution, the objective function of the model is to minimize the maximum working time of vehicles. To solve this model, a Lingo program was written and a heuristic algorithm was designed. We further use the random generation method to produce an example with 10 gas stations. The local optimal solution and approximate optimal solution are obtained by using Lingo software and heuristic algorithm respectively. By comparing the approximate optimal solution obtained by heuristic algorithm with the local optimal solution obtained by Lingo software, the feasibility of the model and the effectiveness of the heuristic algorithm are verified. The results of this paper provide a theoretical basis for the scheduling department to formulate the oil distribution plan.