Strategic delivery route scheduling for small geographic areas

Abstract

The delivery scheduling process of a regional wholesaler was analyzed in order to develop a more strategic scheduling program. The strategic schedule was designed to utilize weekly demand history, opposed to daily demand, in order to decrease small batch deliveries, aid in store inventory management and foster customer relations. This was accomplished with a linear mathematical program, which produced a standard weekly schedule. A metric for the maximum days between deliveries was developed to show the improved delivery day distribution. For the 30 stores analyzed, the average maximum days between deliveries fell from 5.04 days to 3.37 days. The decreased time between deliveries will assist the small stores in inventory management. Additionally, the standardized schedule will allow storeowners and truck drivers to develop a productive relationship, which should be able to decrease delivery time and grow customer relations.