Project R-12604

Routing problems with location selection and inventory restrictions (Research)

Routing problems are one of the most studied problems in operations research due to their inherent complexity and their prevalence in a variety of (logistics) business processes. This project focuses on pickup and delivery problems, a subset of routing problems in which routes are created for transporting items between individual pickup and delivery locations. Current work assumes that these respective locations are predefined and that sufficient items are available at the pickup locations. Yet, in practice the location of where to pick items up is often part of the decision process and pickup locations may be subject to limited inventory. This project will investigate how decisions on routing and (pickup) location selection can be integrated, while accounting for limited inventory levels, and the benefit of such integrated decision-making under various problem conditions.

01 January 2022 - 31 December 2025