DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1487845
title: Problem instances for integrated truck and workforce scheduling problem

description: We randomly generated in total 500 problem instances for the integrated truck and workforce scheduling (ITWS) problem which is proposed in the article "Tadumadze, G., Boysen, N., Emde, S., and Weidinger, F. (2019): Integrated truck and workforce scheduling to accelerate the unloading of trucks. <em>European Journal of Operational Research</em>, 278(1), 343-362, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.04.024". The problem instances are generated for two representative truck scheduling settings: distribution center (ITWS-DC) cross-docking terminal (ITWS-CD). The instance size is defined by the number of dock doors for inbound operations |D|, the number of inbound trucks |J| (and the number of outbound trucks |O| for the ITWS-CD setting) and they are dubbed as follows: XS: |D| = 5; |J| = 20; (|O| = 5) S: |D|= 15; |J| = 50; (|O| = 15) M: |D|= 25; |J| = 100; (|O| = 25) L: |D|= 50; |J| = 200; (|O| = 50) For each setting the instances are divided in sets "computational study" and "managerial insights". For each setting, the dataset "computational study" is divided into two parts (“part 1” and “part 2”) consisting of 80 and 60 instances which vary in problem size (XS, S, M and L) and the expected relative width of the trucks' time windows (Ω_{max}). The dataset "managerial insights" consists of problem instances that vary in acceleration effect of trucks' processing times by additional logistics workers (κ) and scenarios of the workforce size |W|. The notations for the workforce scenario have following meanings: plentiful workforce: |W|=2 ⋅ |D| scarce workforce |W|=|D|. For each setting (i.e., ITWS-DC and ITWS-CD) subset “part 1” of "managerial insights" contains 100 instances (50 with scarce workforce scenario and 50 with plentifull workforce scenario) and “part 2” - 10 instances. The instances are labeled according to the following naming convention: "[problem]_[setting]_[size]_[Ω_{max}]_[κ]_[ID]" where ID is a running index of instance of the same parameter constellation. As instances in “part 1” of the dataset “managerial insights” vary in workforce scenarios the instance names are extended by [scenario] from ahead so that following naming convention is applied: "[scenario]_[problem]_[setting]_[size]_[ Ω_{max}]_[κ]_[ID]". For detailed instance generation scheme see Section 4.1 of the above mentioned work. The file for the problem ITWS-DC are structured as follows: |J| = &lt;number of inbound trucks&gt;; T = &lt;length of planning horizon&gt;; K_j = &lt;vector with |J| elements: the j-th element corresponds to number of unloading modes for truck j&gt;; |W| = &lt;total number of available workers for inbound operations&gt;; |D| = &lt;number of inbound doors&gt;; rho_{jk} = &lt;|J|*K_{max} matrix (with K_max=max_{j∈J}{K_j}): each entry in k-th column and j-th row corresponds to the processing time of truck j if it is unloaded by k logistics workers (the elements in k-th column and j-th row where k&lt;K_j is set to the default value “0”)&gt;; a_j = &lt;vector with |J| elements: the j-th element corresponds to the arrival time of truck j&gt;; d_j = &lt;vector with |J| elements: the j-th element corresponds to the arrival time of truck j&gt;; alpha_j = &lt;vector with |J| elements: the j-th element corresponds to the duration of truck j’s initial docking (i.e., step (1))&gt;; beta_j = &lt;vector with |J| elements: the j-th element corresponds to the duration of truck j’s initial docking plus preparation (i.e., step (1) + step (2))&gt;; gamma_j = &lt;vector with |J| elements: the j-th element corresponds to the duration of truck j’s trailer secluding plus undocking (i.e., step (4) + step (5))&gt;; delta_j = &lt;vector with |J| elements: the j-th element corresponds to the duration of truck j’s final undocking (i.e., step (5))&gt;; The file for the problem ITWS-CD are extended by following additional parameters: |O| = &lt;number of inbound trucks&gt;; FI_{jo} = &lt;|J|*|O| matrix: each entry in o-th column and j-th row corresponds to the weight, of a shipment delivered by inbound truck j dedicated to outbound truck o&gt;; dep_o = vector with |O| elements: the o-th element corresponds to the departure time for outbound truck o&gt;; fi_{go} = &lt;|D|*|O| matrix: each entry in o-th column and g-th row corresponds to the transfer time for moving goods from dock g to outbound truck o&gt;;