Scheduling and routing of multiple heterogeneous vehicles in a milk collection problem with blending in compartments and time windows

Abstract

A raw milk collection problem is consistently the focus of the dairy and milk supply chain, wherein a broad range of concerns need to be reflected, including coordinating heterogeneous vehicles and harmonising various activities under miscellaneous time restrictions. So, this study offers a general milk collection network with different milk qualities to formulate a scheduling and routing problem with multiple multi-compartment heterogeneous vehicles, where associated activities are performed under various time constraints, including time windows, maximum available time, and planning horizon. Moreover, the blending process in multi-compartment vehicles is also considered to increase total profit as the primary purpose of the network. Additionally, a novel hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm that encompasses variable neighbourhood search (VNS) and adaptive large neighbourhood search (ALNS) is proposed to solve the proposed model, wherein a new heuristic algorithm for the blending process is developed to accelerate the offered meta-heuristic algorithm. Finally, a case study and extensive numerical experiments are offered to illustrate the applicability and validity of the proposed model and solution approach. The obtained results reveal that the considerations of the blending process and multi-compartment vehicles significantly impact the system's profit.

KEYWORDS:

• Scheduling and routing
• multi-compartment vehicles
• blending
• milk collection
• time windows
• meta-heuristics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elmira Gheisariha

Elmira Gheisariha is a Ph.D student in industrial engineering at Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Branch, Iran. She obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Industrial Engineering at the College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. Her current research interests include optimization, programming under uncertainty, and meta-heuristic algorithms.

Farhad Etebari

Farhad Etebari received his BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Sharif University of Technology and his MS and PhD degrees in Industrial Engineering from K.N. Toosi University of Technology. He is currently an Associate Professor in Industrial Engineering at Azad University of Qazvin, Qazvin, Iran. His research interests include optimization, machine learning, logistic systems, transportation network design and transportation planning.

Behnam Vahdani

Behnam Vahdani is an Associate Professor in Industrial Engineering at Qazvin Azad University, Iran. The main focus of his research is in the area of optimization, machine learning, and programming under uncertainty.

Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam

Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam is a Professor of Industrial Engineering at the College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. He obtained his Ph.D., M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Industrial Engineering from the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne (1998), the University of Melbourne in Melbourne (1994), and the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran (1989), respectively. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Industrial Engineering published by the University of Tehran and as the Editorial Board member of nine reputable academic journals. He is the recipient of the 2009 and 2011 Distinguished Researcher Awards and the 2010 and 2014 Distinguished Applied Research Awards at the University of Tehran, Iran. He has been selected as the National Iranian Distinguished Researcher in 2008 and 2010 by the MSRT (Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology) in Iran. He has obtained an outstanding rank as the top 1% scientist and researcher in the world elite group since 2014. He also received the Order of Academic Palms Award as a distinguished educator and scholar for the insignia of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the Ministry of National Education of France in 2019. He has published 5 books, 32 book chapters, and more than 1000 journal and conference papers.