1. The potential of optimization in communal routing problems: case studies from Finland
- Author
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Bräysy, Olli, Dullaert, Wout, and Nakari, Pentti
- Subjects
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MATHEMATICAL optimization , *TRANSPORTATION , *CASE studies , *TRANSPORTATION services for older people , *MUNICIPAL government , *MEALS on wheels programs , *SOCIAL services , *MATHEMATICAL models - Abstract
Abstract: In many European countries, municipalities offer their inhabitants a wide variety of social services. In this paper we will focus on efficiently scheduling home care, transportation of the elderly, and home meal delivery. These so-called municipal or communal routing problems can be modeled as different variants of the vehicle routing problem, a well-known optimization problem from the literature. We present a focused literature review and report on case studies using Finnish data. The computational results show that there is a significant potential for cost savings for all applications considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2009
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