I really enjoyed this weeks assignment as I could relate it to several real-world situations. Part A of the assignment had us continue to increase our knowledge of Network Analysis by executing two more tutorials. These practice runs enabled us to have the background to perform the tasks in Part B. The focus of the second task was to use the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) solver to determine routes for a trucking company with a distribution center in South Florida. Optimized routes needed to align with "the company's goal of providing continuity between drivers, customers, and service areas."
Initially, we did not allow flexibility with our route zones. If a route, assigned to a zone, passed an order in a different zone, the route was not allowed to pickup that order even if it was not serviced. This hard route zone setting caused several orders to not be assigned to a route and caused some orders to have time violations. For our second run of the VRP solver we preserved the routes for the orders that were serviced and enable two more trucks to be included in routes. After making the change, all orders were assigned a route and only one order had a time violation. Overall, the cost for adding the two additional trucks was a net loss but customer service was dramatically improved by ensuring that all orders were serviced.
After performing the tasks in this assignment I have a new appreciation for how complex vehicle routing can be and how important attribute data is in your network analysis.
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| Network Analysis for Trucking Company with Depot in South Florida |
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