City-Courier Quick Service Network Topological Design

• Main Authors: Yu-Hsuan Hsu, 許育瑄
• Other Authors: Yat-Wah Wan
• Format: Others
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/42489059490386964315

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 運籌管理研究所 === 103 === As the commercial activities are increasing in urban areas, the express industry courier service under the cutthroat competition. The common competitions are the lower price and the quick service time. The purpose of this thesis is to help city couriers effectively reduce service time when customer locations vary from day to day. This research tackles the problem of topological optimization of a city-courier’s service network. First, we mathematically model the problem. The problem is the topological network design for a multi-objective, multi-period, and multi-depot vehicle routing problem. To solve such a complex problem, we apply the hierarchical optimization approach (HO) to deal with the multi-objective issue. Then, this research further decomposes the problem into topological network design and mutiperiod and multidepot vehicle routing problem. The first step of the topological design is districting problem. An exchange point is decided for each sub-area. We link the exchange points to create a ring network and make it to transfer the packages between the different sub-areas. Then we consider the industry features to model the next problem. The problem includes the minimum total cost, maximum the workload balance and maximum the courier familiarity with zones (zip code). We apply the HO again to decompose each objective as a sub-problem and solve it in sequence by ranking the importance of objectives. Finally, the experiment shows that our approach has potential to be applied in real-life situations.