A real delivery problem dealt with Monte Carlo techniques

[EN] In this paper we use Monte Carlo Techniques to deal with a real world delivery problem of a food company in Valencia (Spain). The problem is modeled as a set of 11 instances of the well known Vehicle Routing Problem, VRP, with additional time constraints. Given that VRP is a NP-hard problem, a heuristic algorithm, based on Monte Carlo techniques, is implemented. The solution proposed by this heuristic algorithm reaches distance and money savings of about 20% and 5% respectively.This research was partially supported by MICINN, Project MTM2013-43540-P and by UPV, Project Programa de Apoyo a la Investigación y Desarrollo de la UPV PAID-06-12.577181Fernández de Córdoba, P., L.M. García-Raffi and J.M. Sanchis Llopis (1998), A heuristic algorithm based on Monte Carlo methods for the Rural Postman Problem.Computers and Op. Research,25, No. 12, pp. 1097–1106, 1998.Fernández de Córdoba, P. and L.M. García-Raffi, E. Nieto and J.M. Sanchis Llopis (1999a), Aplicación de técnicas Monte Carlo a un problema real de Rutas de Vehículos.Anales de Ingeniería, Colombia. In press.Fernández de Córdoba, P., L.M. García-Raffi and J.M. Sanchis Llopis (1999b), A Constructive Parallel Algorithm based on Monte Carlo techniques for Routing Problems, Submitted toParallel Computers.Laporte, G. (1992), The Vehicle Routing Problem: an overview of exact and approximate algorithms,European Journal of Operations Research,59, 345.Laporte, G., M. Desrochers and Y. Nobert (1985), “Optimal Routing under Capacity and Distance Restrictions.Operations Research,33, pp. 1050–1073.Laporte G. and Y. Nobert (1987), Exact algorithms for The Vehicle Routing Problem,Surveys in Combinatorial Optimization (S. Martello, G. Laporte, M. Minoux and C. Ribeiro Eds.). North-HollandAmsterdamMayado, A. (1998), Organización de los itinerarios de la flota de camiones de reparto de una sociedad cooperativa. Optimización mediante técnicas de simulación Monte Carlo. Proyecto Fin de Carrera. E.T.S.I.I. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia