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A branch-and-price algorithm for the scheduling of customer visits in the context of multi-period service territory design

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  • Bender, Matthias
  • Kalcsics, Jörg
  • Nickel, Stefan
  • Pouls, Martin

Abstract

A problem that arises in the context of multi-period service territory design is the scheduling of customer visits. In this problem, customer visits must be assigned to the days of the planning horizon subject to customer-specific requirements. We consider a highly relevant planning scenario of this problem and present an exact branch-and-price algorithm. We propose specialized acceleration techniques, particularly a fast pricing heuristic and techniques to reduce the symmetry inherent to the problem. Experiments on real-world data sets show that instances with up to 55 customers and a planning horizon of four weeks with five days per week can be solved to optimality in reasonable running times.

Suggested Citation

  • Bender, Matthias & Kalcsics, Jörg & Nickel, Stefan & Pouls, Martin, 2018. "A branch-and-price algorithm for the scheduling of customer visits in the context of multi-period service territory design," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(1), pages 382-396.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:269:y:2018:i:1:p:382-396
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2018.01.047
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Zhen, Lu & Gao, Jiajing & Tan, Zheyi & Laporte, Gilbert & Baldacci, Roberto, 2023. "Territorial design for customers with demand frequency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(1), pages 82-101.
    2. Diglio, Antonio & Peiró, Juanjo & Piccolo, Carmela & Saldanha-da-Gama, Francisco, 2023. "Approximation schemes for districting problems with probabilistic constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(1), pages 233-248.
    3. Antonio Diglio & Stefan Nickel & Francisco Saldanha-da-Gama, 2020. "Towards a stochastic programming modeling framework for districting," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 292(1), pages 249-285, September.
    4. Sandoval, M. Gabriela & Álvarez-Miranda, Eduardo & Pereira, Jordi & Ríos-Mercado, Roger Z. & Díaz, Juan A., 2022. "A novel districting design approach for on-time last-mile delivery: An application on an express postal company," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

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