A metaheuristic approach to delivering stock to customers

Abstract

The project handles the improvement strategies of the current distribution of products to customers and it is carried out at a branch situated in Alrode in the outskirts of Johannesburg.Tabu Search TS algorithm is used to find the best route to deliver products. The problem is formulated as a Travelling Salesman problem TSP and the objective is to minimise the total distance travelled. The clustering and insertion heuristic is also modelled into the solution to adhere to the time and capacity constraints. The problem illustrates the distribution from the depot (factory) to the top thirty customers. The bencmark results are from existing tours and they show significant improvement. The project will discuss methods that will enable reduction of the current lead time of seven days towards the vision of one day lead time. Customers in the same geographical area will be grouped so that an area can be visited once. The proposed method of distribution will enable adherance to urgent orders without disturbing the process flow of attending other orders.