Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - A branch-and-cut algorithm for the capacitated open vehicle routing problem
AU - Letchford, A N
AU - Lysgaard, J
AU - Eglese, R W
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - In open vehicle routing problems, the vehicles are not required to return to the depot after completing service. In this paper, we present the first exact optimization algorithm for the open version of the well-known capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). The algorithm is based on branch-and-cut. We show that, even though the open CVRP initially looks like a minor variation of the standard CVRP, the integer programming formulation and cutting planes need to be modified in subtle ways. Computational results are given for several standard test instances, which enables us for the first time to assess the quality of existing heuristic methods, and to compare the relative difficulty of open and closed versions of the same problem.
AB - In open vehicle routing problems, the vehicles are not required to return to the depot after completing service. In this paper, we present the first exact optimization algorithm for the open version of the well-known capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP). The algorithm is based on branch-and-cut. We show that, even though the open CVRP initially looks like a minor variation of the standard CVRP, the integer programming formulation and cutting planes need to be modified in subtle ways. Computational results are given for several standard test instances, which enables us for the first time to assess the quality of existing heuristic methods, and to compare the relative difficulty of open and closed versions of the same problem.
KW - vehicle routing
KW - branch-and-cut
KW - separation
U2 - 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602345
DO - 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602345
M3 - Journal article
VL - 58
SP - 1642
EP - 1651
JO - Journal of the Operational Research Society
JF - Journal of the Operational Research Society
SN - 1476-9360
IS - 12
ER -