Special Topics in GIS Lab 5

This week in class we learned a lot about solving Vehicle Routing Problems using ArcGIS. I really enjoyed the week because it involved getting down into the settings of the software to really see what the program is capable of. The goal was to analyse data given for a company that needed to deliver orders to different customers in the south Florida region. The orders were located at a central distribution facility and there were 22 trucks and drivers available to deliver. In the beginning we restricted ourselves to 14 trucks to try and save on costs, but it resulted in many orders not getting delivered and some being delivered late. After the addition of two more routes all packages were delivered and only one was slightly late (2 minutes). The addition of the two extra routes greatly improved customer service and increased revenue. An image including the delivery zones and routes surrounding the central distribution center shows where all of the drop-off sites are located.

The system took in all of the information provided by the user and followed strict constraints to produce the solution that would decrease distance and time costs while stopping at the maximum amount of drop-off sites.