Real Delivery Distribution Problem with Multi-Modal Transportation
This study serves as a consultancy for an external defense industry company to enhance their delivery and travel planning. The problem at hand is real and highly complex, involving multiple route options such as highways, seaways, railways, airways, and third-party transportation. Additionally, there are planned routes executed periodically. The possibility of transferring between different modes of transportation further expands the solution space.
The primary objective is to ensure timely delivery of loads at minimal cost while optimizing planned route stations. The solution approach must consider load consolidation, vehicle compatibility, and vehicle scheduling. When single-modal transportation is not feasible, suitable transfer points must be identified. Moreover, proper placement of loads into trucks is crucial, as it must satisfy all constraints related to dimensions, weight, volume, and passenger capacity.
All real-world constraints are taken into account in this problem. The solution is also provided as an application, making this a software development project. An interface is developed to better present the solutions, and the database infrastructure is also considered. Object-oriented programming is utilized in the development process.
Various mixed-integer mathematical models, heuristics, and clustering approaches are implemented to address smaller components of the problem, all aimed at providing an efficient solution for the entire problem. The target is to reduce transportation costs by more than 60% once the project is adopted by the company.