Travelling salesman problem in the selected business case

Zhan Zhunussov

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

The topic of this Bachelor Thesis is closely related to the branch of operations research, an analytical method of decision-making used in applied mathematics. More accurately, this Bachelor Thesis is about approximation and optimization methods of Travelling Salesman Problem. I selected a distribution company for analysing delivery routes in order to decrease the length of these routes and, consequently lowering the enterprise’s expenses. The Bachelor Thesis has both theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical part has a detailed description of logistics, its: meaning in business, history, aims and goals. Besides it, I represent operations research in the theoretical part. Moreover, I reveal the usage of operations research in logistics in this part of the Bachelor Thesis. For instance, I show different approaches for solving the Travelling Salesman Problem in logistics. The practical Part of this Bachelor Thesis is represented by the direct application of concepts that I gather in the Theoretical Part of the Bachelor Thesis. More precisely, I applied different approaches of route construction in the selected company. Thanks to the participation of the company that provided real data. Using actual data, I constructed the square matrices. These matrices are a basis for alternative routes construction. The arrangement of the alternative solution was reached by the TSPKOSA software that has four methods: Nearest Neighbour Algorithm (sequential), Vogel Approximation Method/Loss Method, Savings Method (parallel), Branch and Bound. I analysed and compared numerical and graphical outcomes with initial routes. Based on the mathematical and statistical evidence, I selected the most appropriate approach and made the following conclusion. Eventually, based on the findings, I made relevant recommendations to the selected firm.

Keywords

Supply chain, Travelling Salesman Problem, Operations research, Approximation methods, Optimization methods, Logistics

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 15. 3. 2022

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Igor Krejčí, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Bachelor programme:
Informatics