Multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows considering delivery and installation vehicles

We extend the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with time windows (MDVRPTW), a practical and challenging problem in logistics and supply chain management, to a study of service vehicles used for delivery and installation of electronics. This study shows that MDVRPTW results can be used to minimize fixed costs of the depots and the delivery and installation vehicles as well as expenses related to travel distances and labor. Along with a mixed integer programming model, we develop a heuristic and a genetic algorithm to identify a near-optimal solution. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can efficiently be used to solve relatively large problems. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.