Project Objective

With the introduction of these distribution centers, The Home Depot needs to know how to best incorporate them into a transportation plan based on key factors such as handling and transportation costs. This problem is more challenging than conventional vehicle routing problems. Not every facility contains every SKU and a significant number of orders cannot be fulfilled entirely by one distribution center. The nature of products vary widely, from large items such as drywall to small items such as screws, and different products require different modes of transportation. There are multiple methods to get product from facilities to customers, some of which involve transfers: items may be sent from a facility to a customer, backhauled from one facility to another before being sent to the customer on a route. Our objective was to create a transportation plan minimizing cost.