Proceedings of 7th Annual American Business Research Conference
23 - 24 July 2015, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-79-5
A Heuristic-Tabu Combination Method to Periodic Review Inventory
Routing Problem with Simultaneous Delivery and Return
Gia-Shie Liu*
Most publishing logistics firms in Taiwan decide the delivered quantity of products for
each retail stores and the related vehicle delivery routes independently based on their
past intuitive experiences. It motivates us to apply some specific publishing logistics
company’s actual operating data to study the Inventory-Routing problem. Furthermore,
few of them consider delivery and return problems at the same time. Therefore, this
research will apply a real publishing logistics firm’s operating data to study the periodic
review Inventory-Routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery (PRIRPSPD).
This Study first develops a mathematical model for this proposed periodic review
Inventory-Routing problem with simultaneous delivery and return (PRIRPSDR), then
applies Savings method and 2-opt &  -interchange Heuristic method to obtain the initial
feasible solution, finally implements Heuristic-Tabu Combination Method to find the
optimal solution. The numerical examples will be illustrated by applying this publishing
logistics firm’s actual operating data to acquire the optimal delivery routes, optimum
review interval for all retail stores, and the related maximum level of products for each
retail store located in those proposed routes. Finally, the performance of this proposed
Heuristic-Tabu Combination Method will be compared with Savings method, 2-opt &  interchange Heuristic approach. The outcomes are should be very practical and helpful to
this publishing logistics company for their future physical distribution planning.
Field of Research: Management
*Dr. Gia-Shie Liu, Department of Information Management, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology, No. 300, Sec.
1, Wanshou Rd., Guishan Shiang, Taoyuan County 33306, Taiwan, ROC, Email: liugtw@yahoo.com.tw Tel: +886939147594 Fax: +886-2-26788221