Abstract
In an inventory routing problem, inventory management is combined with a routing problem.
It is an exciting problem within operations research since it offers both scientific challenges
and is of great practical importance. This presentation will focus on these two aspects with a
special emphasis on industrial applications. We will discuss different definitions of the
problem and give a broad overview of the existing literature. The inventory routing problem is
not one problem but rather a class of problems. Within this class, the differences are
sometimes larger than the similarities, both regarding the assumptions made and the
methodology used, and it is therefore of interest to classify the work that has been done and
see what conclusions can be drawn from such a classification. Finally we will present some
applications and discuss trends and future research.
It is an exciting problem within operations research since it offers both scientific challenges
and is of great practical importance. This presentation will focus on these two aspects with a
special emphasis on industrial applications. We will discuss different definitions of the
problem and give a broad overview of the existing literature. The inventory routing problem is
not one problem but rather a class of problems. Within this class, the differences are
sometimes larger than the similarities, both regarding the assumptions made and the
methodology used, and it is therefore of interest to classify the work that has been done and
see what conclusions can be drawn from such a classification. Finally we will present some
applications and discuss trends and future research.