The Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows and Incompatibility Constraints in Cold Chain Transportation

This study investigates a new variant of the pickup and delivery problem with time windows (PDPTW) applied in cold chain transportation, which quantifies the effect of time on the quality of perishable products. Multiple commodities with incompatibility constraints are considered, where some types of products cannot be transported in a vehicle simultaneously due to their … Read more

Branch-and-price for clash-free periodic supply vessel planning problem with split delivery and variable service time

Efficient scheduling and routing of vessels are crucial in the oil and gas industries. In this paper, we consider a periodic supply vessel planning problem in which the weekly demands at multiple offshore facilities are satisfied with a fleet of heterogeneous vessels. Preemptive service at the base, variable service at facilities, and split delivery are … Read more

Robust Contextual Portfolio Optimization with Gaussian Mixture Models

We consider the portfolio optimization problem with contextual information that is available to better quantify and predict the uncertain returns of assets. Motivated by the regime modeling techniques for the finance market, we consider the setting where both the uncertain returns and the contextual information follow a Gaussian Mixture (GM) distribution. This problem is shown … Read more

A Stochastic Optimization Approach to Energy-Efficient Underground Timetabling under Uncertain Dwell and Running Times

We consider a problem from the context of energy-efficient underground railway timetabling, in which an existing timetable draft is improved by slightly changing departure and running times. In practice, synchronization between accelerating and braking trains to utilize regenerative braking plays a major role for the energy-efficiency of a timetable. Since deviations from a planned timetable … Read more

Multi-Echelon Inventory Management for a Non-Stationary Capacitated Distribution Network

We present an inventory management solution for a non-stationary capacitated multi-echelon distribution network involving thousands of products. Assuming backlogged sales, we revisit and leverage the seminal multi-echelon inventory management results in the literature to establish the structural properties of the problem, and derive an efficient and practical solution method. In particular, we describe how the … Read more

Minimizing earliness-tardiness costs in supplier networks – A Just-in-time Truck Routing Problem

We consider a routing problem where orders are transported just-in-time from several suppliers to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). This implies that shipments cannot be picked up before their release date when they are ready at the supplier and should be delivered as close as possible to their due date to the OEM. Every shipment … Read more

Robust planning of production routing problem in closed-loop supply chain of beverage glass bottles

Closed-loop supply chains (CLSC) integrate forward and reverse flows of products and information. This integration helps companies to manage their supply chains better as they have more control and a broader view of the whole chain. Also, companies can have economic and environmental benefits from the returned products. Despite these advantages, managing CLSCs can be … Read more

A Sparse Interior Point Method for Linear Programs arising in Discrete Optimal Transport

Discrete Optimal Transport problems give rise to very large linear programs (LP) with a particular structure of the constraint matrix. In this paper we present an interior point method (IPM) specialized for the LP originating from the Kantorovich Optimal Transport problem. Knowing that optimal solutions of such problems display a high degree of sparsity, we … Read more

Planning of Container Crossdocking for an Express Shipment Service Network

In air transportation, container crossdocking refers to a loaded container that is transferred at an airport from an incoming flight to an outgoing flight without handling the freight on the container. It reduces handling time and handling cost relative to unloading the container and sorting the freight, and is an economical alternative if a sufficient … Read more

Lexicographic Branch-and-Bound Column Search

We present an exact generic method for solving the pricing problem in a column generation approach, which we call branch-and-bound column search. It searches the space of all feasible columns via a branch-and-bound tree search and returns all columns with a reduced-cost value below a certainthreshold. The approach is based on an idea from Krumke … Read more