Integration of a food distribution routing optimization software with an enterprise resource planner

Abstract

i3FR is a system for optimizing the distribution of fresh goods, using a fleet of vehicles, which must be integrated with an existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, while avoiding disruption of established schedules and procedures. In terms of delivery optimization, the most similar problem in literature is the well-established and experimented Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW), which is, by nature, a multiple objective problem where the number of vehicles and the total traveled distance must be minimized. In this paper, the overall architecture of the i3FR system is presented, which includes several modules and services (such as ERP, routing optimization and data acquisition modules), and the communication between them. The novelty in the proposed architecture comprises: (i) the application to a fresh goods distribution network, with multiple restrictions on goods' acclimatization; (ii) a data acquisition system which includes vehicle data and environmental data from the vehicles' refrigerated volumes, such as temperature; and (iii) the integration of the VRPTW optimization system with an existing ERP. A case-study is described and validates the overall implementation. The main contribution of paper is the proposal of a multi-layered architecture to integrate existing ERP software with a route optimization and a temperature data acquisition module.