A Reactive GRASP Heuristic Algorithm for Vehicle Routing Problem with Release Date and Due Date Incurring Inventory Holding Cost and Tardiness Cost

In this paper, vehicle routing problems with release dates and due dates (VRPRDD) are considered. Each customer order will incur an inventory holding cost if the order is held back at the depot after its release date and a tardiness cost if the delivery happens after its due date. The mathematical model is proposed and solved using Reactive GRASP heuristics. The results from the heuristics are compared with that of the mathematical model solved by CPLEX. Results of various data sets are used to analyze the effect of cost and due date flexibility on the routes generated. The proposed heuristic method outperforms the MILP solver of CPLEX in terms of quality of solution and the computation time taken. We study the managerial implications and insights subject to flexibility in due dates, and cost structure.