快餐连锁店的行车路线模型

A Vehicle Routing Model For a Fast-food Chain

本文针对香港最大的快餐连锁店之一──大家乐快餐店──的运输路线问题，提出了切实可行的决策支持模型．大家乐快餐店于１９７５年在香港开业．经过２０年快速稳定的发展，目前已拥有大约１００个分店遍布香港各地，并且仍在以每年１０个分店的速度发展。该店用一支小规模的卡车队将大量的物品运到各分店，为了降低运输费用，加快运输速度，快餐店的物资分配部门的经理面临着如何为公司提供经济有效的运输服务这一挑战性任务。我们的研究有两个目标．一是开发一个制定行车路线的算法，以帮助路线设计者设计行车路线，它不仅要节约费用，还要提高效率．另一目标是为运输经理提供指导以决定是将货物从快餐总店运到各分店，还是从供应商直接运到各分店．为此我们用试探法来确定行车线路表．新开发的决策支持系统允许用户更新各分店的有关信息，诸如停车的限制等．该系统提供的行车线路不但节约了开支，而且减少了运输时间。

This study presents a practical application of decision support approach to tackle the real- world transportation and assignment problems of one of the largest fast - food chain, Cafe Shop. in Hong Kong.Cafe Shop has operated in Hong Kong since 1975. After 20 years rapid and steady expansion, presently, it has about 100 stores distributed throughout Hong Kong and is increasing at a rate of about 10 stores per year. In order to lower the transportation cost while trying to speed up the delivery of a large volume of goods by a small fleet of trucks to all subsidiary stores in time,manager of the Distribution Department of Cafe Shop is facing a challenging task of providing a cost effective service for the company.There are two objctives of our study. One is to develop a vehicle routing algorithm that can assist the route planners in Cafe Shop for scheduling the route, not only in terms of Transportation Manager in deciding whether the goods will be transported from the headquarters of Cafe Shop to other Cafe Shop stores, or from the supplier to the stores directly. To deal with these challenges, heuristics were employed to determine the routing schedule. A decision support system which allowed an user to update stores'information such as the parking restrictions was developed. With the new decision support system, new vehicle routes that resulted in substantial savings while shortening the scheduling time were obtained.