Electronic commerce is changing the role of logistics management, and order fulfillment practices will need to be adopted that will meet the demands and expectations of customers. This paper offers a solution to the vehicle routing and scheduling element of the order fulfillment process. A dynamic vehicle routing and scheduling system may be specified which allows e-commerce customers to select their own delivery time windows and have these confirmed online as they place their order. The methodology is based upon demand forecasting, which leads to the generation of phantom orders and phantom routes. Subsequently, actual orders substitute for phantom orders in an online customer order process. The routing and scheduling method includes using both parallel tour-building and parallel insertion algorithms. Customer service levels are confirmed using global positioning system tracking and tracing. A feedback loop using expert systems or artificial intelligence is recommended in order to learn from occurrences of failure to deliver and adjust the phantom plan to minimize future inaccuracies.
Abstract