An Algorithm for SDIRP with Hard Time Windows
Da Jun Zhao, Danxiang Ma, Yinlian Zeng · 2012
The Stochastic Demand Inventory Routing Problem (SDIRP) is a kind of typical NP-hard problem. Considering the coordination and optimization problem of inventory and distribution in the supply chain is the key to implementing vendor managed inventory (VMI) and is one of the most active directions in the OR realm. This paper studies the stochastic demand IRP with hard time windows (SDIRPHTW), and decomposes it into two sub-problems: stochastic inventory problem and routing schedule problem with time windows restriction. Then a heuristic algorithm based Markov Decision Process (MDP) and modified C-W algorithm is presented. Finally, the efficiency of the algorithm is analyzed through a numerical example.