OPTIMIZING LOGISTICS ROUTES IN THE FIELD OF MAINTENANCE

Abstract

In the event that there is a requirement to provide maintenance with a service intervention somewhere in the area, it is necessary to select a service team which is optimal for the given task for all the assessed aspects. In this article, tests and methods based on TSP principles have been developed that are able to optimize route selection between key points. Due to the complexity of algorithm design, two approaches have been validated. The "Brute Force" method, which can provide information on the choice of the optimal route according to the specified parameters, and the "Nearest Neighbour" method, which is able to quickly calculate a large group of intermediate points, but only provides sufficient results. The aim was to create a methodology, guidance, and direction in evaluating route selection. That is why two basically opposed methods of TSP solution have been chosen, modified by the authors into a form suitable for implementation on virtually any platform. Although the design and program implementation was based on the MATLAB platform, no proprietary functions and libraries are used and the entire software design is implemented without the need for their use.

Keywords

• logistics
• maintenance
• optimization
• traveling salesman problem