A heuristic approach to vehicle routing problem and an application

In recent years, the distribution system has become increasingly more complex and distribution planning workers has been faced with more big and complex distribution problems. One of the reasons of this development is company mergers. Another reason for complicating distribution system is the increasing importance of time in the distribution chains and costs on competition because of the increasing competition between firms during recent years.Vehicle Routing Problem is the most important problem in distribution systems. In this study, it is dealed with the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) which has lots of applications in real life such retail distribution, school bus routing, mail and newspaper delivery, waste collection, fuel delivery. This problem is related with the efficient use of a fleet of capacitated vehicles which have vehicle capacity constraint and service time restrictions imposed at the customer locations and should make a number of stops to serve a set of customers so as to minimize cost. Due to the complexity of the problem, heuristics are often used for solving problems in real life.In this study, the existing literature on the vehicle routing problems and exact and heuristics solutions for them has been examined. Then one of the heuristics approach named Saving Method has been improved and applied in a distribution firm in Mersin.