APPLICATION OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) FOR DISTRIBUTION OF FRESH VEGETABLES CONSIDERING THE VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEM (STUDY AREA OF KUALA LUMPUR & KLANG VALLEY, MALAYSIA)

This research will conduct a well known company which is producing all kind of fresh vegetables. This company is interested in reducing the total distribution cost based on the total distance travelled and total length of drive time. At present this company has customer; such as hypermarket around the country and approximately most of them are located in Kuala Lumpur. The vehicle must be loaded at the company where producing the fresh vegetables, and then send for distribution of vegetable to hypermarket around the city and return to the company. For this research needs to use the GIS (Geographic Information System) technique. This technique is the respond for requirements of this research by using the network analyzing in GIS technology. The GIS technique aims to improve the effectively of information availability and can be used for determining the suitable road based on shortest distance and drive time. Vehicle routing has many practical applications within the fields of operations research, logistics, distribution, supply chain management, and transportation, etc. In general, vehicle routing involves finding efficient routes for vehicles along transportation networks, in order to minimize; route length, service cost, travel time, number of vehicles, etc. It will develop a computer model able to decide the optimal distribution for certain needs. The system will try to improve the delivery service by decreasing the length of drive time and overall distribution cost, wherever possible. Finally this model will help the company reducing their distribution cost and can build the delivery network base on their requirement. The result of this research will show later that how decision support system tool very useful to describe the suitable route in order for distribution. The VRP gives the solution on how to take the routes with less drive time or less distance for the purpose of this research.

کلیدواژه ها:

Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) ، Geographic Information System (GIS) ، Distribution ، Distribution Cost ، Fresh Vegetables ، Network Analysis