IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v61y2013i3p677-693.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Robust Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem Under Demand Uncertainty

Author

Listed:
  • Chrysanthos E. Gounaris

    (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544)

  • Wolfram Wiesemann

    (Imperial College Business School, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom)

  • Christodoulos A. Floudas

    (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544)

Abstract

The robust capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) under demand uncertainty is studied to address the minimum cost delivery of a product to geographically dispersed customers using capacity-constrained vehicles. Contrary to the deterministic CVRP, which postulates that the customer demands for the product are deterministic and known, the robust CVRP models the customer demands as random variables, and it determines a minimum cost delivery plan that is feasible for all anticipated demand realizations. Robust optimization counterparts of several deterministic CVRP formulations are derived and compared numerically. Robust rounded capacity inequalities are developed, and it is shown how they can be separated efficiently for two broad classes of demand supports. Finally, it is analyzed how the robust CVRP relates to the chance-constrained CVRP, which allows a controlled degree of supply shortfall to decrease delivery costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Chrysanthos E. Gounaris & Wolfram Wiesemann & Christodoulos A. Floudas, 2013. "The Robust Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem Under Demand Uncertainty," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(3), pages 677-693, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:61:y:2013:i:3:p:677-693
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1120.1136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.1120.1136
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.1120.1136?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gendreau, Michel & Laporte, Gilbert & Seguin, Rene, 1996. "Stochastic vehicle routing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 3-12, January.
    2. Wenqing Chen & Melvyn Sim & Jie Sun & Chung-Piaw Teo, 2010. "From CVaR to Uncertainty Set: Implications in Joint Chance-Constrained Optimization," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 470-485, April.
    3. Ilgaz Sungur & Yingtao Ren & Fernando Ordóñez & Maged Dessouky & Hongsheng Zhong, 2010. "A Model and Algorithm for the Courier Delivery Problem with Uncertainty," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 193-205, May.
    4. Alan L. Erera & Juan C. Morales & Martin Savelsbergh, 2009. "Robust Optimization for Empty Repositioning Problems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(2), pages 468-483, April.
    5. Patrick Jaillet, 1988. "A Priori Solution of a Traveling Salesman Problem in Which a Random Subset of the Customers Are Visited," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 929-936, December.
    6. Chris Groër & Bruce Golden & Edward Wasil, 2009. "The Consistent Vehicle Routing Problem," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 630-643, February.
    7. Xin Chen & Melvyn Sim & Peng Sun & Jiawei Zhang, 2008. "A Linear Decision-Based Approximation Approach to Stochastic Programming," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(2), pages 344-357, April.
    8. Dimitris J. Bertsimas & David Simchi-Levi, 1996. "A New Generation of Vehicle Routing Research: Robust Algorithms, Addressing Uncertainty," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 286-304, April.
    9. Stewart, William R. & Golden, Bruce L., 1983. "Stochastic vehicle routing: A comprehensive approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 371-385, December.
    10. Gouveia, Luis, 1995. "A result on projection for the vehicle routing ptoblem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 610-624, September.
    11. Kulkarni, R. V. & Bhave, P. R., 1985. "Integer programming formulations of vehicle routing problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 58-67, April.
    12. Aykagan Ak & Alan L. Erera, 2007. "A Paired-Vehicle Recourse Strategy for the Vehicle-Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(2), pages 222-237, May.
    13. Laurent El Ghaoui & Maksim Oks & Francois Oustry, 2003. "Worst-Case Value-At-Risk and Robust Portfolio Optimization: A Conic Programming Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 543-556, August.
    14. Sebastián Ceria & Robert A Stubbs, 2006. "Incorporating estimation errors into portfolio selection: Robust portfolio construction," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(2), pages 109-127, July.
    15. Dror, Moshe & Trudeau, Pierre, 1986. "Stochastic vehicle routing with modified savings algorithm," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 228-235, February.
    16. Astrid S. Kenyon & David P. Morton, 2003. "Stochastic Vehicle Routing with Random Travel Times," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 69-82, February.
    17. Gilbert Laporte, 2009. "Fifty Years of Vehicle Routing," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(4), pages 408-416, November.
    18. Kara, Imdat & Laporte, Gilbert & Bektas, Tolga, 2004. "A note on the lifted Miller-Tucker-Zemlin subtour elimination constraints for the capacitated vehicle routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(3), pages 793-795, November.
    19. Daniel Adelman, 2004. "A Price-Directed Approach to Stochastic Inventory/Routing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(4), pages 499-514, August.
    20. Gilbert Laporte & Yves Nobert & Martin Desrochers, 1985. "Optimal Routing under Capacity and Distance Restrictions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(5), pages 1050-1073, October.
    21. Roberto Baldacci & Paolo Toth & Daniele Vigo, 2010. "Exact algorithms for routing problems under vehicle capacity constraints," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 213-245, March.
    22. Augerat, P. & Belenguer, J. M. & Benavent, E. & Corberan, A. & Naddef, D., 1998. "Separating capacity constraints in the CVRP using tabu search," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(2-3), pages 546-557, April.
    23. Gilbert Laporte & François Louveaux & Hélène Mercure, 1992. "The Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Travel Times," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 161-170, August.
    24. Dimitris Bertsimas & Melvyn Sim, 2004. "The Price of Robustness," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 35-53, February.
    25. Nicola Secomandi & François Margot, 2009. "Reoptimization Approaches for the Vehicle-Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(1), pages 214-230, February.
    26. Ben-Tal, Aharon & Chung, Byung Do & Mandala, Supreet Reddy & Yao, Tao, 2011. "Robust optimization for emergency logistics planning: Risk mitigation in humanitarian relief supply chains," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1177-1189, September.
    27. Michel Gendreau & Gilbert Laporte & René Séguin, 1995. "An Exact Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands and Customers," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 143-155, May.
    28. Anton J. Kleywegt & Vijay S. Nori & Martin W. P. Savelsbergh, 2004. "Dynamic Programming Approximations for a Stochastic Inventory Routing Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(1), pages 42-70, February.
    29. Dimitris Bertsimas & Dan A. Iancu & Pablo A. Parrilo, 2010. "Optimality of Affine Policies in Multistage Robust Optimization," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 363-394, May.
    30. Wen-Huei Yang & Kamlesh Mathur & Ronald H. Ballou, 2000. "Stochastic Vehicle Routing Problem with Restocking," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 99-112, February.
    31. Moshe Dror & Gilbert Laporte & Pierre Trudeau, 1989. "Vehicle Routing with Stochastic Demands: Properties and Solution Frameworks," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 166-176, August.
    32. Alan L. Erera & Juan C. Morales & Martin Savelsbergh, 2010. "The Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demand and Duration Constraints," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(4), pages 474-492, November.
    33. Erick Delage & Yinyu Ye, 2010. "Distributionally Robust Optimization Under Moment Uncertainty with Application to Data-Driven Problems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(3), pages 595-612, June.
    34. R. Baldacci & E. Hadjiconstantinou & A. Mingozzi, 2004. "An Exact Algorithm for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem Based on a Two-Commodity Network Flow Formulation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(5), pages 723-738, October.
    35. Russell W. Bent & Pascal Van Hentenryck, 2004. "Scenario-Based Planning for Partially Dynamic Vehicle Routing with Stochastic Customers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(6), pages 977-987, December.
    36. Gilbert Laporte & FranÇois V. Louveaux & Luc van Hamme, 2002. "An Integer L -Shaped Algorithm for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 415-423, June.
    37. Baldacci, Roberto & Mingozzi, Aristide & Roberti, Roberto, 2012. "Recent exact algorithms for solving the vehicle routing problem under capacity and time window constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 218(1), pages 1-6.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jorge Oyola & Halvard Arntzen & David L. Woodruff, 2018. "The stochastic vehicle routing problem, a literature review, part I: models," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 7(3), pages 193-221, September.
    2. Shubhechyya Ghosal & Wolfram Wiesemann, 2020. "The Distributionally Robust Chance-Constrained Vehicle Routing Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 68(3), pages 716-732, May.
    3. Nicola Secomandi & François Margot, 2009. "Reoptimization Approaches for the Vehicle-Routing Problem with Stochastic Demands," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(1), pages 214-230, February.
    4. Luo, Zhixing & Qin, Hu & Zhang, Dezhi & Lim, Andrew, 2016. "Adaptive large neighborhood search heuristics for the vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and weight-related cost," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 69-89.
    5. Jorge Oyola & Halvard Arntzen & David L. Woodruff, 2017. "The stochastic vehicle routing problem, a literature review, Part II: solution methods," EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 6(4), pages 349-388, December.
    6. Pillac, Victor & Gendreau, Michel & Guéret, Christelle & Medaglia, Andrés L., 2013. "A review of dynamic vehicle routing problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 225(1), pages 1-11.
    7. Bertazzi, Luca & Secomandi, Nicola, 2018. "Faster rollout search for the vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and restocking," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(2), pages 487-497.
    8. Jinil Han & Chungmok Lee & Sungsoo Park, 2014. "A Robust Scenario Approach for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Uncertain Travel Times," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 373-390, August.
    9. Prasanna Balaprakash & Mauro Birattari & Thomas Stützle & Marco Dorigo, 2015. "Estimation-based metaheuristics for the single vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and customers," Computational Optimization and Applications, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 463-487, June.
    10. Ann M. Campbell & Barrett W. Thomas, 2008. "Probabilistic Traveling Salesman Problem with Deadlines," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(1), pages 1-21, February.
    11. Soumia Ichoua & Michel Gendreau & Jean-Yves Potvin, 2006. "Exploiting Knowledge About Future Demands for Real-Time Vehicle Dispatching," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(2), pages 211-225, May.
    12. Alan L. Erera & Juan C. Morales & Martin Savelsbergh, 2010. "The Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Demand and Duration Constraints," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(4), pages 474-492, November.
    13. Mathias A. Klapp & Alan L. Erera & Alejandro Toriello, 2018. "The One-Dimensional Dynamic Dispatch Waves Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(2), pages 402-415, March.
    14. Zhang, Junlong & Lam, William H.K. & Chen, Bi Yu, 2016. "On-time delivery probabilistic models for the vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and time windows," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(1), pages 144-154.
    15. Shukla, Nagesh & Choudhary, A.K. & Prakash, P.K.S. & Fernandes, K.J. & Tiwari, M.K., 2013. "Algorithm portfolios for logistics optimization considering stochastic demands and mobility allowance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 146-166.
    16. Briseida Sarasola & Karl Doerner & Verena Schmid & Enrique Alba, 2016. "Variable neighborhood search for the stochastic and dynamic vehicle routing problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 236(2), pages 425-461, January.
    17. Florent Hernandez & Michel Gendreau & Ola Jabali & Walter Rei, 2019. "A local branching matheuristic for the multi-vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands," Journal of Heuristics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 215-245, April.
    18. E. Angelelli & R. Mansini & M. Vindigni, 2016. "The Stochastic and Dynamic Traveling Purchaser Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 642-658, May.
    19. Briseida Sarasola & Karl F. Doerner & Verena Schmid & Enrique Alba, 2016. "Variable neighborhood search for the stochastic and dynamic vehicle routing problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 236(2), pages 425-461, January.
    20. Florio, Alexandre M. & Hartl, Richard F. & Minner, Stefan, 2020. "Optimal a priori tour and restocking policy for the single-vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 285(1), pages 172-182.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:61:y:2013:i:3:p:677-693. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.