A Multi-Criteria Decision Approach for Optimized Route Planning in Retail Distribution

Route planning is vital for logistics efficiency.Not only responsible to manage the whole delivering process, but also arrange the shipping with optimum route, increase customer satisfaction and logistics cost control.Even though route planning and delivery are repetitive processes, many problems are still found in this area such as: mistaken in route assignment, over truck capacity, and mistakes in truck allocation that lead to failed delivery.This study presents a multi-criteria decision approach to optimize retail delivery routing.Sales order data for a distribution firm was tested using weighted scoring of capacity, distance, and route azimuth parameters to create straight-line paths between drop points.Comparative analysis showed 33% vehicle reduction and around 40% savings in time over manual planning, demonstrating cost and service improvements.