Optimizing Transport Logistics under Uncertainty with Simheuristics: Concepts, Review and Trends

Abstract

Background: Uncertainty conditions have been increasingly considered in optimization problems arising in real-life transportation and logistics activities. Generally, the analysis of complex systems in these non-deterministic environments is approached with simulation techniques. However, simulation is not an optimization tool. Hence, it must be combined with optimization methods when our goal is to: (i) minimize operating costs while guaranteeing a given quality of service; or (ii) maximize system performance using limited resources. When solving NP-hard optimization problems, the use of metaheuristics allows us to deal with large-scale instances in reasonable computation times. By adding a simulation layer to the metaheuristics, the methodology becomes a simheuristic, which allows the optimization element to solve scenarios under uncertainty. Methods: This paper reviews the indexed documents in Elsevier Scopus database of both initial as well as recent applications of simheuristics in the logistics and transportation field. The paper also discusses open research lines in this knowledge area. Results: The simheuristics approaches to solving NP-hard and large-scale combinatorial optimization problems under uncertainty scenarios are discussed, as they frequently appear in real-life applications in logistics and transportation activities. Conclusions: The way in which the different simheuristic components interact puts a special emphasis in the different stages that can contribute to make the approach more efficient from a computational perspective. There are several lines of research that are still open in the field of simheuristics.

Optimizing Transportation between Sea Ports and Regions by Road Transport and Rail and Inland Waterway Transport Means Including “Last Mile” Solutions

“…Optimal transport corridor selection and its effectiveness is recommended as a benchmark to reflect the operating conditions of the selected transport corridors and/or transport modes due to disruption [53]. The results of the scientific literature review of related literature sources, related to similar tasks [54][55][56], indicated that a developed methodology of the transportation parameters evaluation is useful for the practical tasks and could be useful in many similar transportation cases. However, weight coefficients, which are used in developed methodology, could be discussed and further investigated.…”

Learnheuristics in routing and scheduling problems: A review

“…The main objective of solving routing problems is to design a set of routes that serve a set of geographically distributed points (cities, customers, etc.) at the minimal cost (minimum traveling distance or time) while respecting all the imposed constraints [5]. Routing problems have numerous applications that are applicable in real life.…”

“…Routing problems have numerous applications that are applicable in real life. The vehicle routing problem (VRP) and the traveling salesman problem (TSP) are popular problems that have attracted significant attention through the decades [5,6]. Table 1 provides a list of the routing problems that are referred to in this work.…”

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Justification of the optimal option and transportation parameters for export supplies using marine transport

“…A sufficient number of publications are devoted to the justification of effective options for the transportation of bulk cargo, but, as a rule, the optimization of delivery routes is in the center of consideration [3][4][5][6][7]. Although most of the attention of researchers is focused on the delivery of small-lot cargoes, including the delivery of cargoes in containers [8][9][10].…”