Multi-period Stochastic Optimization Problems

This paper investigates a multi-period vehicle loading problem with stochastic information regarding the release dates of items to be transported. The deterministic version of the problem can be formulated as a large-scale set covering problem. Several heuristic algorithms are proposed to generate decision policies for the stochastic optimization model over a long rolling horizon. The resulting policies have been extensively tested on instances which display the main characteristics of the industrial case-study that motivated the research. The tests demonstrate the benefits of the multi-period stochastic model over simple myopic strategies. A simple and efficient heuristic is shown to deliver good policies and to be robust against errors in the estimation of the probability distribution of the release dates.