Combination of geographical information system and efficient routing algorithms for real life distribution operations

This paper presents a decision support system (DSS) employing a metaheuristic algorithm called BoneRoute, for solving the open vehicle routing problem (OVRP). The OVRP deals with the problem of finding a set of vehicle routes, for a fleet of capacitated vehicles to satisfy the delivery requirements of customers, without returning to the distribution centre. The computational performance of the BoneRoute algorithm for the OVRP was found to be very efficient, producing new best solutions over a set of well-known published case studies examined. Technical and managerial issues aroused from the ad hoc connections between the geographical information system (GIS), the routing technique used for calculating shortest paths and the BoneRoute algorithm for finding the optimal sequence of customers, were faced successfully. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.