This paper addresses the problem of optimizing the transportation of disabled persons from home to specialized centres or schools. It is modelled as a Dial-a-ride problem (DARP), where several people share the same destination. Particular emphasis is placed on the objective function in order to...

The Pickup and Delivery Problem with Shuttle routes (PDPS) is a special case of the Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows (PDPTW) where the trips between the pickup points and the delivery points can be decomposed into two legs. The first leg visits only pickup points and ends at some...

This paper addresses the problem of finding an effective distribution plan to deliver free newspapers from a production plant to subway, bus, or tram stations. The overall goal is to combine two factors: first, the free newspaper producing company wants to minimize the number of vehicle trips...

This paper presents a successful application of operations research techniques in guiding the decision making process to achieve a superior operational efficiency in core activities. We focus on a rich vehicle routing problem faced by a Portuguese food distribution company on a daily basis. This...

Supply chain network design (SCND) models and methods have been the subject of several recent literature review surveys, but none of them explicitly includes sustainable development as a main characteristic of the problem considered. The aim of this review is to bridge this gap. The paper...

This paper proposes a mixed integer linear program (MILP) for the design and planning of a production-distribution system. This study aims to help strategic and tactical decisions: opening, closing or enlargement of facilities, supplier selection, flows along the supply chain. These decisions...