System to Solve the Inventory Routing Problem with Stochastic Demand and Time Window

Abstract

The inventory routing problem with stochastic demand includes the inventory control, product transportation and scheduling decisions, considering an estimation of customer demands. This problem appears in several real situations, playing a fundamental role in reducing costs and improving the efficiency and reliability of the service. In practice, there are often restrictions on the "time window", which corresponds to a certain period of the day on which deliveries can be made. Despite the great relevance of this type of constraint, there are no results in the literature that combine stochastic demand and time window constraints. In this work, we propose a system, using advanced techniques of operational research, to solve the inventory routing problem with stochastic demand, considering time window constraints, as well as additional constraints of maximum inventory capacities in both the client and the depot and individual confidence level of the customer service.