SAMS Subject Classification: 23

Practical challenges often arise when implementing solutions that stem from solving vehicle routing problem instances. Unplanned external events can result in increased vehicle travel times and subsequent degradations in supply chain operational efficiency. Moreover, drivers tend to get lost and/or often travel on roads that are not suitable for the delivery vehicles utilised when they are unfamiliar with delivery routes, which typically occurs when these routes differ significantly from one day to the next. A possible solution aimed at streamlining the practical implementation of planned delivery schedules is to generate a set of standard delivery routes visiting each customer along different approaches, called master routes. These master routes may then be used as blueprints for daily planning purposes when actual delivery routes are computed. Delivery vehicle drivers may thus be afforded the opportunity to become familiar with the master routes, which is anticipated to increase the efficiency with which they perform deliveries if the actual delivery routes do not deviate too much from these master routes. In this presentation, two mathematical models are derived and accompanying approximate solution approaches are proposed for the creation of such master routes, and subsequent actual delivery routes. Furthermore, numerical results obtained during a real case study are discussed.