Route generation for deliveries: a web application employing the Clarke Wright algorithm

• Main Author: Sng, Elvis Kai Qin
• Other Authors: Huang Shell Ying
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Computer science and engineering::Software
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171886
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Efficient routing has become paramount for optimising time and cost in the delivery of goods in the supply chain industry. Notably, the cost of last mile delivery still constitutes a large portion of the overall costs in the delivery of goods. Last mile delivery refers to the last leg of the delivery process, where the goods are transported from the local warehouse or transportation hub to the intended clients. Smaller businesses often lack resources to invest in research and development for route optimisation due to the complex nature of the Vehicle Routing Problem. The Vehicle Routing Problem refers to finding an efficient set of routes for a set of vehicles to traverse all given destinations. This project aims to reduce overall operating costs of last mile deliveries by providing a free and functional web application that users can use to generate routes for their deliveries. The web application uses free open-source resources and Clarke Wright algorithm as the basis for the route generation algorithm. The algorithm is improved using the Holmes and Parker algorithm with inclusion and exclusion principles. The web application is built with Next.js, a full stack framework. The open-source resource used to generate the distance and time matrices required for the route optimisation is OpenRouteService. The algorithm is developed in Python and exposed as an Application Programming Interface (API) using Flask.