The inventory-routing problem subject to vehicle failure

The problem of vehicle failure is introduced to the field of inventory-routing problems and formulated. Since the model is NP-hard, we have designed an adapted social-based algorithm with four scenarios to solve it. We have embedded the global war procedure into the algorithm to reduce the chance of being trapped in local optimum and premature convergence. For validation, the following benchmarking methods are enlisted: (i) comparing with four other meta-heuristic algorithms which are all calibrated and their effectiveness and efficiency evaluated; (ii) comparing with a suggested lower-bound. Sensitivity analyses of the algorithm provide insights for academics and practitioners.