A software tool for optimizing intra-logistic activities

Digital manufacturing promotes the use of innovative technologies in the global market landscape and provides effective and efficient Supply Chain Management Systems. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the automation of an industrial warehouse by elaborating a novel software simulation tool for solving a classical NP-hard optimization problem, the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Multiple Trips (CVRPMT). The software tool promotes the use of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in industrial facility layouts and is based on an existing software framework, developed in the C# programming language. At this study we first formulate the mathematical model for the CVRPMT, we implement a hybrid metaheuristic Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm and develop a friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) for scheduling and monitoring the AGVs' activities.