Multi-Objective Optimization for Order Assignment in Food Delivery Industry with Human Factor Considerations

Abstract

The order assignment in the food delivery industry is of high complexity due to the uneven distribution of order requirements and the large-scale optimization of workforce resources. The delivery performance of employees varies in different conditions, which further exacerbates the difficulty of order assignment optimization. In this research, a non-linear multi-objective optimization model is proposed with human factor considerations in terms of both deteriorating effect and learning effect, in order to acquire the optimal solutions in practice. The objectives comprised the minimization of the operational cost in multiple periods and the workload balancing among multiple employees. The proposed model is further transformed to a standardized mixed-integer linear model by the exploitation of linearization procedures and normalization operations. Numerical experiments show that the proposed model can be easily solved using commercial optimization softwares. The results indicate that the variance of employee performance can affect the entire delivery performance, and significant improvement of workload balancing can be achieved at the price of slight increase of the operational cost. The proposed model can facilitate the decision-making process of order assignment and workforce scheduling in the food delivery industry. Moreover, it can provide managerial insights for other labor-intensive service-oriented industries.

A Model for an Order-Picking Problem with a One-Directional Conveyor and Buffer

“…The order assignment step in the order preparation process becomes crucial and has an impact on the total delivery performance since the latter actions are frequently accomplished using commercial navigation software [52].…”

Profit and Satisfaction Aware Order Assignment for Online Food Delivery Systems Exploiting Water Wave Optimization

“…A multi-objective non-linear optimization model was proposed to minimize the overall operational cost and balance the workload among multiple workers in [4]. Their focus was workload management for the system, and they did not consider customer satisfaction and worker profit.…”

“…The number of orders received is expected to be much higher in the peak hours (i.e., VOLUME 4, 2016 lunch and dinner time) than that of off-peak hours. An OFD system needs to maintain a sufficient number of workers to ensure timely delivery of the orders as food is a highly perishable product [4]. While faster delivery of orders increases customer satisfaction, a delayed delivery(typically above 1 hour) becomes the reason for customer dissatisfaction, and thus, this is not preferred [5].…”

The Impact of Consolidating On-Demand Food Delivery on Sustainability: A Simulation Study

“…This, in turn, can lead to a higher carbon footprint as vehicles spend more time on the road [1]. Besides, the surge in delivery orders may cause drivers to experience an increased workload, resulting in fatigue that could adversely affect their physical and mental health [2]. The time constraint to meet delivery deadlines and the pressure to earn higher commissions could result in safety concerns for drivers and increase the likelihood of traffic accidents [3].…”