AKARYAKIT DAĞITIMINDA ARAÇ ROTALAMA PROBLEMİ İÇİN BİR BAŞLANGIÇ ÇÖZÜMÜ

Abstract

One of the well known problems in distribution is the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP). In this problem, vehicles start their tours from a depot, they visit the customers and finish their tours in the depot again. There are several variants of VRP. Fuel distribution provides a different kind of VRP which is called as Multi Compartment Vehicle Routing Problem (MCVRP). In MCRVP vehicles have compartments and incompatible petroleum products are delivered in different compartments of a vehicle. For both of the problems solution methods can be classified into two categories; route construction heuristics and improvement heuristics. While there is a significant literature on VRP regarding these heuristics, the literature on MCVRP is much more limited. The aim of this study is to offer a construction heuristics for a fuel distribution problem in Turkey. The problem has some features such as compartments, visiting customers more than once and tolerance which turns it into a MCVRP problem. Savings Algorithm (SA) and a loading algorithm is integrated to develop a construction heuristics for the problem. Proposed heuristics is tested on test problems and acceptable results obtained when compared with the literature. A real life fuel distribution problem is solved with the proposed heuristics and significant cost reduction has been achieved. The proposed method can be used as a construction method in MCVRP and as a practical solution for real life problems in fuel distribution in Turkey

Keywords

• logistics
• fuel distribution
• vehicle routing problem