A rich vehicle routing problem arising in the replenishment of automated teller machines

Abstract

This paper introduces, models, and solves a rich vehicle routing problem (VRP) motivated by the case study of replenishment of automated teller machines (ATMs) in Turkey. In this practical problem, commodities can be taken from the depot, as well as from the branches to efficiently manage the inventory shortages at ATMs. This rich VRP variant concerns with the joint multiple depots, pickup and delivery, multi-trip, and homogeneous fixed vehicle fleet. We first mathematically formulate the problem as a mixed-integer linear programming model. We then apply a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based solution method, which uses a tabu search heuristic optimization method, to a real dataset of one of the major bank. Our numerical results show that we are able to obtain solutions within reasonable solution time for this new and challenging practical problem. The paper presents computational and managerial results by analyzing the trade-offs between various constraints.