Computational Approaches for Grocery Home Delivery Services

Abstract

The steadily growing popularity of grocery home-delivery services is most likely based on the convenience experienced by its customers. However, the perishable nature of the products imposes certain requirements during the delivery process. The customer must be present when the delivery arrives so that the delivery process can be completed without interrupting the cold chain. Therefore, the grocery retailer and the customer must mutually agree on a time window during which the delivery can be guaranteed. This concept is referred to as the attended home delivery (AHD) problem in the scientific literature. The phase during which customers place orders, usually through a web service, constitutes the computationally most challenging part of the logistical processes behind such services. The system must determine potential delivery time windows that can be offered to incoming customers and incrementally build the delivery schedule as new orders are placed. Typically, the underlying optimization problem is a vehicle routing problem with a time windows. This work is concerned with a case given by an international grocery retailer’s online shopping service. We present an analysis of several efficient solution methods that can be employed to AHD services. A framework for the operational planning tools required to tackle the order placement process is provided. However, the basic framework can easily be adapted to be used for many similar vehicle routing applications. We provide a comprehensive computational study comparing several algorithmic strategies, combining heuristics utilizing local search operations and mixed-integer linear programs, tackling the booking process. Finally, we analyze the scalability and suitability of the approaches.

An Optimization of Home Delivery Services in a Stochastic Modeling with Self and Compulsory Vacation Interruption

“…Snežana Tadić and Miloš Veljović [21] described the advantages, disadvantages, interdependence, and applicability of different delivery models in changing circumstances. Christian Truden et al [22] provided a comprehensive computational study comparing several algorithmic strategies, combining heuristics utilizing local search operations and mixed-integer linear programs, and tackling the booking process for grocery home delivery services. Unnikrishnan and Figliozzi [23] discussed the home delivery purchases and expenditures on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Attended home delivery under uncertain travel and response time: a case of Indian public distribution system

“…Being the final end of the logistic distribution, this plays an important role in the distribution network (Lang et al, 2021;Seghezzi and Mangiaracina, 2021). In the last few years, door-step delivery has gained tremendous popularity among consumers (Mancini and Gansterer, 2021;Truden et al, 2022). Further, in recent times, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as an important safety measure to avoid human-to-human contact to prevent the spread of the disease, doorstep delivery has gained more importance among people (Koch and Klein, 2020;Mehlawat et al, 2021).…”

“…, 2021; Seghezzi and Mangiaracina, 2021). In the last few years, door-step delivery has gained tremendous popularity among consumers (Mancini and Gansterer, 2021; Truden et al. , 2022).…”