I. Context

Logistics optimization remains a major challenge for companies worldwide.

Efficient distribution of goods directly impacts operational costs, customer satisfaction, and environmental footprint.

Among the various optimization problems, vehicle routing problems (VRP) occupy a central place.

Source: Dynamic Vehicle Routing Solution in the Framework of Nature-Inspired Algorithms, Omprakash Kaiwartya, 2015

Each industrial sector introduces its own specific constraints.

• Vehicles Capacities
• Multi-compartiments trucks
• Deliveries time windows
• Products compatibilities
• Split-deliveries
• Multi-trips
• Stochastics demands
• Priorities
• etc

Depending on the sector (transportation, healthcare, agriculture, e-commerce, supply-chain, …)

II. Our Problem

1. Multi Depots : Vehicles start from and return to multiple different warehouses or hubs instead of just one central location.
2. Multiple Trips: The vehicles can do more than one route.
3. Capacitated: The vehicles have a limited carrying capacity of the goods that must be delivered.
4. Multi Products: The fleet must deliver multiple distinct categories of products to a set of stations.
5. Asymmetric Demand: A single customer might request a large volume of Product A but a tiny fraction of Product B.
6. Heterogeneous Fleet: The fleet contains different types of vehicles with varying capacities.
7. Split deliveries: Each customer can be visited by multiple vehicles, provided the total delivered quantity satisfies their exact demand.

But ! 🤔

This didn’t apply to petroleum products distribution.

According to experts and researchs…

• Agriculture & Animal Feed

• Construction & Materials

Conclusion I

It is clear that the problem exists in one way or another.