A Vehicle Routing Problem Solved Through Some Metaheuristics Procedures: A Case Study

This study presents a Vehicle Routing Problem solved through some metaheuristics procedures. A two-phase methodology was used for that: 1) defining clusters of demand points to be served, as a Facilities Location Problem (FLP); and 2) defining routes to be developed within each cluster, as a Traveling Salesman Problem Asymmetric (TSPA). For a clearer understanding, the methodology was applied to a fast transportation company, referred here as ABC, located in the district Cidade Industrial of Curitiba (CIC), in Curitiba city, in Parana State, Brazil. The metaheuristics Simulated Annealing (SA), Tabu Search (TS) and a Hybrid Algorithm (HA) were used in the first phase (FLP) and also in the second phase (TSPA). Two scenarios were evaluated, with variations of the group number. In the first scenario, the goal was to form five groups of demand points, in order to compare with the company real situation (actual scenario). In the second scenario, the goal was to form three clusters. BT and SA metaheuristics presented the best results for the 1st. and 2nd. scenarios.