Solving Node Edge Arc Routing Problems in the Distribution of Media Products

Abstract

There is a strong pressure on economy in the distribution of media products. Two important remedies are more efficient carrier routes and distribution of side products. Both call for effective and dynamic route design and revision processes. These processes are complex, time-consuming, and costly. The size of industrial carrier route planning instances may cause performance problems for VRP algorithms. In the VRP literature, the Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (CARP) is often advocated as an adequate model for applications such as newspaper delivery and garbage collection. We argue that a better model is the Node Edge Arc Routing Problem (NEARP). We describe how we have extended a VRP solver to enable modeling of the NEARP, and extended it with a framework for multi-level aggregation of demand. An aggregation heuristic that is based on the underlying road topology is presented. The resulting solver has been integrated in a commercial web based system for route management and tested by pilot users. We present experimental results on real-life data from newspaper distribution. Results on standard CARP and NEARP instances from the literature are given, including several new best known solutions.

Solving Node Edge Arc Routing Problems in the Distribution of Media Products