A Model and Solution Method for Solving the Real-world and Complex Problem of Scheduling Visits to Customers

Abstract

Some of the complex logistical problems faced by companies combine the needs for strategic and tactical decisionsconcerning the interrelated issues of clustering, scheduling, and routing. Various strategies can be used to solve theseproblems. We present a problem of this type, involving a company whose fundamental objective is thecommercialization of its product in the domestic market. The paper focuses on a model of and method for a solution tothe problem of scheduling visits to customers, taking into account the relationship with other phases of productmarketing. The model is nonlinear, involves binary and continuous variables, and solved heuristically. Computationalexperiments show that the proposed solution performed very well for both real-life and theoretical instances.