Vehicle routing problems have been the focus of extensive research over the past sixty
years, driven by their economic importance and their theoretical interest. The diversity of …

The inventory-routing problem (IRP) dates back 30 years. It can be described as the
combination of vehicle-routing and inventory management problems, in which a supplier …

In order to be competitive companies need to take advantage of synergistic interactions
between different decision areas. Two of these are related to the distribution and inventory …

1.1▪ Introduction A generic verbal definition of the family of vehicle routing problems can be
the following: Given: A set of transportation requests and a fleet of vehicles. The problem is …

Inventory-routing problems (IRPs) arise in vendor-managed inventory systems. They require
jointly solving a vehicle routing problem and an inventory management problem. Whereas …

The periodic vehicle routing problem (PVRP) first appeared in 1974 in a paper about
garbage collection (Beltrami and Bodin, Networks 4 (1974), 65–74). The wide applicability …

The combined operation of distribution and inventory control achieved through a vendor-
managed inventory strategy creates a synergetic interaction that benefits supplier and …

An increasing number of companies focus on customer satisfaction to increase the lifetime
value of each customer. In vehicle routing, customer satisfaction is often a result of …

The consistent vehicle routing problem (ConVRP) takes customer satisfaction into account
by assigning one driver to a customer and by bounding the variation in the arrival times over …

Customer relationship management is of high importance as it strengthens customer
satisfaction. Providing consistent customer service cultivates customer retention and brand …