Song Xu , Xiangyue Ou , Kannan Govindan , Mingzhou Chen , Wenting Yang
{"title":"An adaptive genetic hyper-heuristic algorithm for a two-echelon vehicle routing problem with dual-customer satisfaction in community group-buying","authors":"Song Xu , Xiangyue Ou , Kannan Govindan , Mingzhou Chen , Wenting Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103874","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103874","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study focuses on a novel variant of the classical two-echelon vehicle routing problem (2E-VRP), termed the two-echelon vehicle routing problem with dual-customer satisfaction (2E-VRP-DS) (i.e. time windows satisfaction and freshness satisfaction) in community group-buying. It is important to obtain better solutions for the 2E-VRP-DS with long-distance distribution in the first echelon and last-mile delivery in the second echelon. Therefore, a new mathematical model is established for the 2E-VRP-DS that incorporates objectives: minimising the total distribution costs, and maximum dual-customer satisfaction (time windows satisfaction, and product freshness satisfaction). To solve the mathematical model, an efficient adaptive genetic hyper-heuristic algorithm (AGA-HH) was proposed, complemented by a k-means clustering approach to generate initial solutions. The adaptive genetic algorithm is considered to be a high-level heuristic, and ten local search operators were considered as low-level heuristics to expand the search region of the solution and achieve robust optimal results. Three sets of experiments were conducted, and the results demonstrated the superiority of AGA-HH in solving the 2E-VRP-DS, showing improvements in distribution costs reduction, time windows compliance, and product freshness preservation. Moreover, sensitivity analyses were carried out to show the influence of the number of DCs and the tolerance range of product freshness, discovering some managerial insights for companies. Future work should consider and investigate VRPs in other new business modes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103874"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142788856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unlocking Real-Time Decision-Making in Warehouses: A machine learning-based forecasting and alerting system for cycle time prediction","authors":"Davide Aloini , Elisabetta Benevento , Riccardo Dulmin , Emanuele Guerrazzi , Valeria Mininno","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103933","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103933","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In highly automated warehouses characterized by unpredictable demand, timely decision-making is critical to maintaining operational efficiency. This study proposes a forecasting and alerting system for real-time warehouse management. The system utilizes a Machine Learning (ML)-based predictive model to forecast picking order tardiness using Warehouse Management System data, complemented by a real-time alerting mechanism to support operators in in making informed short-term decisions. A case study conducted in a Shuttle-Based Storage and Retrieval Systems (SBS/RS) of a tire distribution company validates the system’s effectiveness. Particularly, several ML techniques were tested to find the best forecasting model, leveraging a set of predictors tailored to the characteristics of the warehouse. Simulation with real data demonstrates significant reductions of peak cycle times and in total cycle time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103933"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142867653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuyan Wang , Junhong Gao , T.C.E. Cheng , Mingzhou Jin , Xiaohang Yue , Huajie Wang
{"title":"Is it necessary for the supply chain to implement artificial intelligence-driven sales services at both the front-end and back-end stages?","authors":"Yuyan Wang , Junhong Gao , T.C.E. Cheng , Mingzhou Jin , Xiaohang Yue , Huajie Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103923","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103923","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in supply chain management, focusing on its impact on service models at both the front and back ends of the supply chain (SC). We employ a Stackelberg game model to construct an SC system consisting of a single manufacturer and a single retailer, aiming to assess the impact of AI on SC performance and explore strategic selection considerations within this framework. Our findings are as follows: (1) AI implementation generally leads to lower product pricing, but its effect on market demand follows a nonlinear pattern. In particular, when the manufacturer integrates AI, the simultaneous use of AI by the retailer will not change the wholesale price but will lead to a decrease in the retail price and market demand. (2) In situations where the back-end cost efficiency is sufficiently high, the optimal choice for both the manufacturer and retailer might be to refrain from adopting AI. Conversely, adopting AI is preferable when the back-end cost efficiency is sufficiently low. Furthermore, when the back-end cost efficiency is moderate, the manufacturer benefits from adopting AI, but the retailer’s profit suffers. (3) Regardless of whether the manufacturer adopts AI, the retailer’s most prudent option is not to implement AI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103923"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142867655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Huichang Dong , Zhixing Luo , Nan Huang , Hongjian Hu , Hu Qin
{"title":"The electric vehicle dial-a-ride problem: Integrating ride-sharing and time-of-use electricity pricing","authors":"Huichang Dong , Zhixing Luo , Nan Huang , Hongjian Hu , Hu Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103946","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103946","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates The Electric Vehicle Dial-a-Ride Problem: Integrating Ride-Sharing and Time-of-Use Electricity Pricing (DAR-RSTOU), which involves designing a set of minimum-cost routes to service all customers for a fleet of electric vehicles (EVs). The characteristics of the problem include: (1) the use of EVs and consideration of partial charging strategies; (2) a maximum ride time duration limit for each customer; (3) the possibility of ride-sharing among customers; (4) accounting for Time-of-Use (TOU) electricity pricing policies. We propose a novel mixed integer programming model to describe the problem, aiming to minimize the weighted sum of the charging, total travel, and detour penalty costs. Additionally, we have devised a customized adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic with an enhanced feasibility-checking method for rapid solution evaluation and dynamic programming to optimize the charging strategy for the fleet. Computational experiments on adapted benchmark instances from DARP literature and on instances based on real data from electric taxis in Shenzhen assess the validity of the DAR-RSTOU formulation and the heuristic algorithm. Parameter experiments highlight the algorithm’s acceleration strategy effectiveness. Valuable managerial insights are derived from policy-oriented research on different electricity pricing strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103946"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhuolin Wang , Rongping Zhu , Jian-Ya Ding , Yu Yang , Keyou You
{"title":"Localized package shipment with partial outsourcing: An exact optimization approach for Chinese courier companies","authors":"Zhuolin Wang , Rongping Zhu , Jian-Ya Ding , Yu Yang , Keyou You","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103901","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103901","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This work is concerned with the daily package shipment problem that aims to find low-cost paths for a large volume of packages and transportation vehicles over a network of transshipment centers (TCs). For Chinese courier companies, this typically involves tens of thousands of origin–destination (OD) pairs and has to be solved in a limited time window every early morning. Inspired by their industry practices, where most vehicles (99.8% for our industry partner STO) only unload packages after departing from the origin and the shipment volumes can be split, we propose a novel Localized Package Shipment with Partial Outsourcing (LPSPO) model for each TC to individually decide their daily shipment profiles, which aligns with their current operations. Though the number of OD pairs in our localized model is considerably reduced, it is <em>strongly NP-hard</em> and we exploit the model structure to design a column generation-based algorithm, which iteratively identifies profitable paths for the restricted master problem. Then, we develop problem-specific cutting planes and variable bound tightening techniques to accelerate our algorithm. An extensive numerical study validates that our algorithm significantly outperforms CPLEX in solving the LPSPO model. Finally, experiments on realistic instances from a leading Chinese courier company illustrate that the LPSPO model may reduce its transportation costs by up to 10 million USD annually.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103901"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142816528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zihan Qiu , Jiancheng Long , Yang Yu , Shukai Chen
{"title":"Integrated task assignment and path planning for multi-type robots in an intelligent warehouse system","authors":"Zihan Qiu , Jiancheng Long , Yang Yu , Shukai Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103883","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103883","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper considers an intelligent warehouse system (IWS) that requires the seamless cooperation of three types of mobile robots: automated guided vehicles (AGVs), rail-guided vehicles (RGVs), and gantry lifting devices (GLDs). Compared to the conventional system, which comprises AGVs, the IWS is more flexible in addressing with the customized demands of diverse enterprises. This paper proposes an integrated task assignment and path planning problem for multi-type robots (e.g., AGVs, RGVs, and GLDs) in IWS. The cooperative constraints between AGVs and GLDs, RGVs and GLDs, as well as the conflict-free constraints among AGVs, are considered. It is challenging to solve the multi-type robots scheduling problem with the conflict-free constraints of AGVs because these constraints can result in the unfixed task completion time of AGVs and pose computational challenges of the task assignment for AGVs, RGVs, and GLDs. The proposed integrated task assignment and path planning problem for multi-type robots is modeled as a multi-commodity flow problem on a novel state-time–space network and is formulated as an integer linear programming (ILP) model, where the warehouse operator aims to minimize the total completion time of all tasks. We developed a Lagrangian relaxation heuristic with a customized efficient strategy to find feasible solutions. We also solved our proposed model using CPLEX. The tailored Lagrangian relaxation heuristic was tested on simulated and real instances provided by a manufacturing company. The results show that the proposed heuristic outperforms the baseline algorithm. Sensitivity analyses from the numerical experiments are discussed, which can help the company improve the efficiency of the IWS.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103883"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142816536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mingyang Du , Xuefeng Li , Lin Cheng , Weike Lu , Wenxiang Li
{"title":"Order matching optimization of the ridesplitting service: A scenario with midway stops","authors":"Mingyang Du , Xuefeng Li , Lin Cheng , Weike Lu , Wenxiang Li","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103936","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103936","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ridesplitting travel can provide numerous social and environmental benefits, including reducing vehicle usage and traffic congestion, and decreasing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This study examines the practicability of integrating the function of midway stops into ridesplitting services. Considering two coexisting matching forms: pre-pool-matching and en-route matching, the ridesplitting order dispatch problem with midway stops is formulated as an integer programming model with multiple objectives. Two methods are developed to address the proposed problem, i.e., an exact algorithm based on bipartite graph and a two-stage method based on Kuhn-Munkres algorithm. Based on the ride-hailing trip data, numerical experiments are conducted to examine the performance of the proposed methods. We also quantify the benefits of the ridesplitting matching with midway stops compared with the solo matching with midway stops and the traditional ridesplitting matching without midway stops. The impacts of the characteristics of midway stops on the order dispatching results are also discussed. The results indicate that compared with the solo ride-hailing matching with midway stops, the ridesplitting matching with midway stops could greatly improve distance savings of trips and the matching success rate of passengers. The research results can enrich the landing scene of ridesplitting service and promote the innovation and upgrading of this product.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103936"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142887894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chenyu Wang , Jingchun Sun , Siyu Shi , T.C. Edwin Cheng
{"title":"Third-party sellers’ selling formats and advertising competition on e-commerce platforms","authors":"Chenyu Wang , Jingchun Sun , Siyu Shi , T.C. Edwin Cheng","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103945","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103945","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many e-commerce platforms allow third-party sellers (manufacturers and retailers) to sell on their websites for commission fees. In particular, manufacturers can sell directly on the platforms (agency selling) or wholesale products to their retailers, who then resell on the platforms (reselling). Competition arises among these downstream sellers. Moreover, manufacturers make pricing and advertising decisions under agency selling, while their retailers make these decisions under reselling, further complicating competition. This study establishes a game-theoretic model that includes two symmetric manufacturers to discuss the interactions between selling formats and sellers’ advertising decisions. Three possible selling modes exist: pure reselling (mode R), pure agency selling (mode A), and hybrid selling (mode H). We find that the equilibrium advertising decisions are different in these selling modes and that product value plays an important role. Specifically, the sellers (i.e., retailers) in mode R always advertise. However, only one seller (i.e., manufacturers) in mode A advertises when the product value is high. In mode H, the manufacturer has a higher profit margin than the retailer and always advertises to leverage this competitive advantage; however, the retailer advertises only when the product value is low. We find that agency selling yields a higher advertising effort than reselling, which may lead to a higher retail price. This finding differs from the traditional wisdom that retail prices in agency selling should be lower because of mitigated double marginalization. Our results demonstrate that agency selling can benefit manufacturers in the presence of advertising competition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103945"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142888985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Building sustainable hazardous products supply chain against ambiguous risk with accelerated Benders decomposition algorithm","authors":"Jinpei Wang , Xuejie Bai , Yankui Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103941","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103941","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The detrimental consequences of accidents in the supply chain pose a major challenge to the management of transportation risks in the hazardous products supply chain. The development of a sustainable hazardous products risk management method is an important research problem. For this purpose, this paper investigates the hazardous products supply chain design problem with the deployment of an emergency response team (ERT) before and after supply accidents, and proposes a new hazardous products supply chain risk avoidance approach. Our approach considers the government as the upper decision-maker and the company as the lower decision-maker, and adopts a bilevel optimization framework to characterize the hierarchical relationship in our problem. To model the uncertainty of arcs risks and availability of partial distribution information, this paper constructs an ambiguous joint chance constraint based on the Wasserstein ambiguity set. To improve the reliability of the network arc connection and the sustainability of supply, a multi-objective bilevel distributionally robust (MBDR) model is developed. Moreover, we reformulate the proposed model as a computationally tractable mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. To further improve the solving efficiency, we design an accelerated Benders decomposition (BD) algorithm by incorporating two sets of valid inequalities. Finally, a practical case in Guangdong Province is presented to illustrate the superiority of our proposed method and algorithm. The computational results show that our MBDR model and BD algorithm perform better in terms of out-of-sample performance and exhibit good solving efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103941"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142888988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Patent licensing strategies in supply chains with downstream coopetition","authors":"Hongmei Qi , Jihang Shi , Xuefeng Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103889","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2024.103889","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates a supply chain comprising a technology patent holder, a national brand, and an outsourcing manufacturer. Through the development of an analytical model, we explore the effects of downstream co-opetition on the patent holder’s licensing strategies and clarify the interactive dynamics between the involved parties. The key findings are as follows: (1) Enhancing consumer’s perceived value of products produced by the outsourcing manufacturer does not always lead to positive outcomes. (2) Expanding patent licensing to additional firms may not always be advantageous for the patent holder and, in certain cases, may even reduce its profitability. (3) Under specific conditions, there is an interaction between the patent holder’s licensing strategy and the national brand’s outsourcing decisions. Notably, when the national brand assumes a leadership role in decision-making, this interaction becomes more pronounced. (4) The existence of a feasible decision-making region enables not only a “win–win” outcome for decision makers but also a “win–win–win” scenario benefiting all participants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 103889"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142888989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}