Exploratory Research on Engineering the Transport Industries (ETI): Solving Large-Scale Logistics Problems in Real-Time: Models, Algorithms, and Information Systems

运输行业工程 (ETI) 的探索性研究：实时解决大规模物流问题：模型、算法和信息系统

• 批准号: 0085682
• 负责人: Hilbrand Romeijn
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-10-01 至 2002-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0085682&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Exploratory; Research; Engineering; Transport; Industries

This grant is made under the Exploratory Research on Engineering the Transportation Industries (ETI) program solicitation. This award provides funding for the development of new optimization models, algorithms, and software for solving large-scale logistics problems, in which cost effective solutions are sought by integrating transportation and inventory decisions. The network and assignment structure inherent in many logistics problems will be utilized to develop efficient algorithms to solve these problems. Due to the scale of these problems, the investigator will concentrate on efficient heuristic methods. In particular, the development of greedy heuristics and neighborhood search techniques for solving the assignment component, integrated with heuristics for solving the nonlinear network flow component. The focus on heuristics seems particularly promising for taking advantage of the larger availability of operational data, which calls for a frequent reoptimization of the flow of goods through a logistics network, based on data as it becomes available.If successful, the results of this research will lead to improvements in the design of logistics systems and the development of new heuristics for solving complex non-linear and integer network flow problems. The primary goal of this work is to produce logistics systems in which operational decisions can be made more efficiently, by providing a much better starting point for making these decisions. The factors that will be taken into account for the evaluation of the costs of a logistics network design are the, generally conflicting, costs of transportation and holding inventory, as well as customers' demands for service, such as just-in-time deliveries and single-sourcing. This will help to achieve an overall cost reduction in comparison to the traditional two-stage approach where the transportation and inventory decisions are decoupled. The proposed work will also contribute to the theory of assignment and network flow problems by providing new and efficient heuristic for such problems.

这笔赠款是在交通运输行业工程探索性研究(ETI)项目征集下提供的。该奖项为开发新的优化模型、算法和软件以解决大规模物流问题提供资金，在这些问题中，通过整合运输和库存决策来寻求具有成本效益的解决方案。许多物流问题所固有的网络和分配结构将被用来开发有效的算法来解决这些问题。由于这些问题的规模，研究人员将专注于高效的启发式方法。特别是，开发了贪婪启发式算法和邻域搜索技术来求解分配分量，并结合启发式算法求解非线性网络流量分量。对启发式方法的关注在利用运营数据的更大可用性方面似乎特别有希望，这要求在获得数据的基础上，频繁地重新优化物流网络中的货物流动。如果成功，这项研究的结果将导致物流系统设计的改进，并开发新的启发式方法来解决复杂的非线性和整数网络流问题。这项工作的主要目标是生产物流系统，通过为做出这些决策提供一个更好的起点，从而能够更有效地做出运营决策。在评价物流网络设计的成本时，将考虑的因素是运输和库存成本，以及客户对服务的需求，如准时交货和单一来源，这些成本通常相互冲突。与运输和库存决策脱钩的传统两阶段方法相比，这将有助于实现总体成本的降低。通过为指派和网络流问题提供新的、有效的启发式算法，所提出的工作也将有助于这类问题的理论研究。