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Planning waste cooking oil collection systems.
Tânia Rodrigues Pereira Ramos1, Maria Isabel Gomes, Ana Paula Barbosa-Póvoa
1ISCTE Business School-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal. tania.ramos@iscte.pt
This study optimizes waste cooking oil collection routes using a novel vehicle routing model. The new planning significantly reduces mileage and fleet hiring costs for logistics companies.
Area of Science:
- Operations Research
- Logistics Management
- Optimization
Background:
- Waste cooking oil collection systems often involve multiple depots and outsourced fleets, necessitating efficient route planning.
- Existing systems may not account for flexible inter-depot routing, leading to suboptimal logistics.
- The need for cost-effective and mileage-efficient solutions in waste management is critical.
Purpose of the Study:
- To address the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem with Mixed Closed and Open Inter-Depot Routes.
- To develop and apply a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model for optimizing waste cooking oil collection routes.
- To reduce operational costs and mileage in a real-world waste collection scenario.
Main Methods:
- Formulation of a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model.
- Inclusion of capacity and duration constraints within the routing model.
- Application of the developed model to a real-life case study of waste cooking oil collection.
Main Results:
- Achieved a 13% reduction in total mileage for the collection fleet.
- Secured an 11% decrease in fleet hiring costs compared to the current solution.
- Provided optimized vehicle route plans for the waste cooking oil collection system.
Conclusions:
- The developed MILP model effectively optimizes vehicle routing for waste cooking oil collection.
- The model demonstrates significant cost savings and mileage reduction in practical logistics operations.
- This approach offers a viable solution for improving the efficiency of multi-depot logistics systems.
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