Int J Performability Eng ›› 2019, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (2): 464-474.doi: 10.23940/ijpe.19.02.p11.464474

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Modeling of Spare Parts Supply Route Optimization with Hard Time Windows

Ming Han, Yabin Wang(), and Zhonghua Cheng   

  1. Department of Management Engineering, the Army of Engineering University of PLA, Shijiazhuang,050003,China
  • Submitted on ;
  • Contact: Wang Yabin E-mail:wangyabin123@163.com
  • About author:<b>Ming Han</b> is a graduate student at Army Engineering University studying management science. Her main research area is supply engineering.|<b>Yabin Wang</b> is an associate professor and postgraduate tutor at Army Engineering University. His main research area is reliability.|<b>Zhonghua Cheng</b> is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Army Engineering University. His main research area is managementengineering.

Abstract:

In view of the spare parts supply route problem with hard time windows in transportation, an optimal model that aims to minimize the total delivery time is put forward. In this paper, the supply route optimization problem with the shortest transportation distance as the decision target is discussed in detail. Taking the shortest total transportation distance of all vehicles as the optimization goal, a mathematical analytical model thatc onsiders the hard time window requirements of each customer is established. Based on the improved ant colony algorithm, the algorithm flow of solving the vehicle routing problem with hard time windows is designed to solve the difficulty of the model. In addition, the feasibility of the improved algorithm is verified by a case considering the actual terrain. The results show that the improved algorithm can quickly find the solution of VRPTW and provide an effective delivery plan for decision makers.

Key words: spare parts supply, route optimization, modeling, hard time windows, ant colony algorithm