A time-division distribution strategy for the two-echelon vehicle routing problem with demand blowout

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>Based on the rapid development of e-commerce, major promotional events and holidays can lead to explosive growth in market demand and place significant pressure on distribution systems. In this study, we considered a distribution system in which products are first transported to transfer satellites from a central depot and then delivered to customers from the transfer satellites. We modeled this distribution problem as a two-echelon vehicle routing problem with demand blowout (2E-VRPDB). We adopt a time-division distribution strategy to address massive delivery demand in two phases by offering incentives to customers who accept flexible delivery dates. We propose a hybrid fireworks algorithm (HFWA) to solve the 2E-VRPDB model. This model fuses an optimal cutting algorithm with an improved fireworks algorithm. To demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed HFWA, we conducted comparative analysis on a genetic algorithm and ant colony algorithm using a VRP example set. Finally, we applied the proposed model and HFWA to solve a distribution problem for the Jingdong Mall in Chengdu, China. The computational results demonstrate that the proposed approach can effectively reduce logistical costs and maintain a high service level.</p>