汽車製造廠的物流配送系統，多以特定週期指派車輛的方式，將零件運回廠內進行組裝為主，然而汽車業本身是以精實生產的方式製造產品，其中零件配送的收貨物流方式是推行精實生產的關鍵。在實務上，載貨數量會隨著週期時間改變而改變。因此在本篇論文中，我們將討論變動週期車輛途程問題且設計兩個決策進行求解。首先，設計車輛收貨路徑來取得運輸時間，接著安排每個零件的收貨週期頻率及數量。藉由決定收貨路徑達到一天總運輸成本最小化之目標。而總運輸成本考量包括了距離成本、裝載成本、調度成本及運送頻率成本。由於此問題為週期車輛途程問題的一個特例，我們發展初始解演算法及混合塔布搜尋法 (hybrid tabu search, HTS)。混合塔布搜尋法具有從鄰域解中隨機選取十個可行解、考慮所有可行解、多樣化策略、強化策略、交換機制與塔步搜尋法 (tabu search, TS) 的結合等特性。實驗結果證明，我們發展的初始解演算法及混合塔布搜尋法對問題改善成效明顯優於現行汽車組裝廠使用的調度方法。

In general, the distribution for the auto parts manufacturer in the real-life system must pick-up raw materials periodically by vehicles. However, the idea of lean production is applied in the production of the auto parts manufacturer. The key of raw materials distribution is to implement lean production. The quantity of cargo will be changed as a vehicle transport cycle time changes. Therefore, the objective of the variable periodic vehicle routing problem (VPVRP) is to minimize the total transportation cost in this thesis. There are two decisions must be design to solve this problem. First, the daily routes have to be designed to obtain the transport times. Then, the pick-up cycle time and the quantity of each raw material have to assign in the planning horizon. The objective of the problem is to determine pick-up routes so as to minimize the total transportation cost in one day. The transportation cost includes distance cost, loading cost, dispatching cost, and frequency cost. Since the problem is a special case of the periodic vehicle routing problem (PVRP), we develop initial algorithms and the hybrid tabu search (HTS) for solving the problem. There are several distinctive features in the HTS, including randomly generating ten feasible solutions in a neighborhood, considering all feasible solutions in a neighborhood, the intensification strategy, the diversification strategy, and combination of tabu search (TS) with the switch mechanism. The computational results show that the proposed initial algorithms and the HTS outperform the current scheduling method used by the case plant with a significant improvement.

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