Multiperiod planning and routing on a rolling horizon for field force optimization logistics

Abstract

We address the problem of the planning and routing of technician visits to customers in the field, for maintenance or service logistics activities undertaken by utilities. The plans must be designed over a multiperiod, rolling horizon and updated daily. We have developed a memetic algorithm and a column generation/branch and bound heuristic in order to optimize an initial plan over a static horizon. We have then adapted our procedures to cope with a rolling horizon context, when a new plan has to be determined after the execution of each first daily period of the previous plan. We have tested our procedures on realistic data from the water distribution sector, and obtained good solutions in a reasonable amount of time. We show in particular the advantage of reutilization of partial solutions from the previous plan for the optimization of each new plan. Directions for further research are then indicated. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008.