Multiple probabilistic traveling salesman problem in the coordination of drug transportation—In the context of sustainability goals and Industry 4.0

Abstract

Improving the effectiveness of route planning, especially in road transport deliveries is a challenge we need to face in the context of advancing climate change and the sustainable development goals. The main aim of the paper is to demonstrate the above average and utilitarian significance of the multiple probabilistic traveling salesman problem (MPTSP) in the coordination and modeling of sustainable product transportation, which is a novelty at the theoretical, conceptual, methodological and empirical level. We propose a new, hybrid algorithm of solving MPTSP instances (it connects harmony search, k-means and 2-opt), which can be successfully used in economic practice for coordination and modeling of Industry 4.0. The effectiveness of proposed approach is tested using a case study of drugs distribution services and datasets obtained from the transportation enterprise located in Poland. The study focuses on the issue of planning routes, with particular emphasis on the changing demand of customers. It should be stressed that this work may be of interest to researchers but also to management practitioners. The value added of this research lies in the innovative modeling the coordination of sustainable drug transportation as an instance of MPTSP and proposing an effective method to solve it. The main research results confirm that proposed method contributes to overall sustainability of studied supply chain.

Developing an interplay among the psychological barriers for the adoption of industry 4.0 phenomenon

“…The Euclidean separation distances were calculated using Eqs ( 5) and (6). After determining the distance from a positive and negative ideal solution, there has been computation of relative closeness (Ci) to the ideal solution of each barrier by using Eq (7).…”

“…The concept of these smart factories surfaced in 2011 with the commencement of the German Government’s digital manufacturing project, a part of the erstwhile high-tech strategy at one of the largest trade fairs, ‘Hannover Messe’ [ 5 ]. I4.0 is not just a new manufacturing era [ 6 ] but has emerged as the most prominent solution achieving sustainability [ 7 ]. However, this paradigm shift from embedded to cyber-physical systems would put manufacturing organizations in a number of technological, organizational, and managerial challenges.…”

Real-time Fast Selection System with Object Recognition and TSP algorithms

“…Therefore, it tends to be used in different areas in the detection of short routes [25]. The traveling salesman problem has been used as a solution in many studies with its dynamic analysis structure [26][27][28][29][30]. In a sifting system where object recognition and TSP algorithms work simultaneously, the locations of unsuitable fruits and foreign materials to be selected can be shown as target coordinates in the TSP algorithm and an optimum route can be created for the orientation of the vacuum head.…”

A novel approach to the Orienteering Problem based on the Harmony Search algorithm

“…Among the relatively new methods characterized by significant efficiency is the Harmony Search (HS). This technique was proposed in [ 20 ] and successfully applied to a water pump switching problem [ 21 ], the Sudoku solving process [ 22 ], the design of steel frames [ 23 ], university course timetabling [ 24 ], route optimization for on-demand e-waste collection [ 25 ], nurse rostering problems [ 26 ], microstructural image classification [ 27 ], coordination of drug transportation [ 28 ], frequency stabilization in interconnected power system [ 29 ], and the Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem (ATSP) [ 30 ].…”