Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

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Computers & Industrial Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/caie

Vehicle routing problem for fresh products distribution considering

customer satisfaction through adaptive large neighborhood search
Min Huang a, Minghao Liu a, Hanbin Kuang b, *
a
College of Information Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Synthetical Automation for Process Industries, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning
110819, China
b
School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: To deal with the fresh products distribution problem in city logistics, this paper focuses on the customer psy­
Vehicle routing problem chological behavior considering both delivery time and the fresh products quality from the perspective of
Fresh products distribution customer satisfaction. Thereby, we propose a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model, among which a time
Psychological behavior
satisfaction function depending on customers’ time windows and a quality satisfaction function considering the
Customer satisfaction
Adaptive large neighborhood search
freshness of the products are introduced as constraints. Then, an improved Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search
algorithm is designed with a new strategy to jump out of the local optimal solutions and with new operators
considering satisfaction functions. Numerical experiments on benchmark instances of standard Solomon in­
stances demonstrate the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed method. The calculation results showed
that the proposed algorithm is superior to previous approaches by obtaining better feasible solutions with less
calculation time. Furthermore, managemental insights are provided for enterprises on making wise investments
while ensuring customer experience through optimizing distribution strategies.

1. Introduction
With the continuous development of e-commerce, the traditional
consumption pattern of buying daily fresh products in fruits and vege­
tables offline markets and large supermarkets has become unable to
meet the growing demand of customers. In recent years, online grocery
shopping has seen a remarkable surge and the market size of fresh e-
commerce is expanding. By the end of 2024, around 55 % of US cus­
tomers will shop for groceries online, and Amazon has expanded its fresh
produce online sales across Europe by using its Prime Now service
(Keyes, 2021). According to the China Fresh Food E-commerce Industry
Research Report 2022, the market size of China’s fresh food e-commerce,
experienced significant growth, was 311.74 billion yuan in 2021, up
18.2 % year on year. In 2023, the fresh food market in China is predicted
to reach 419.83 billion yuan (Guangdong iiMedia Research Co., Ltd,
2022).
Nowadays, customers’ shopping habits are changing from offline to
online (Shaw et al., 2022), and the growing demand for online purchases
of fresh products needs to be satisfied. Hence, the distribution of fresh
products has become a hot issue in the logistics industry. The distribu­
tion of fresh products belongs to the variation and expansion of the
vehicle routing problem (VRP). Fresh products are perishable, which
means they need to be kept refrigerated in the storage and distribution to
prolong their shelf life. Hence, online sales of fresh products are
considerably different from regular e-commerce. Current research on
the fresh products distribution mainly focused on vehicle routing
(Hashemi-Amiri et al., 2023), delivery time (Bortolini et al., 2016),
storage methods (Han et al., 2021), outsourcing (Wang et al., 2022), and
competitiveness (Kang and Pang, 2022). However, few of them focused
on the impact of distribution services on customer psychological
behavior. To fill the research gap, within the framework of the tradi­
tional VRP, the purpose of this paper is to minimize the total distribution
cost during the process of fresh products distribution while satisfying
customer psychological requirements.
Since the customer service expectations are rising, the customer
service experience is considered as an important indicator for affecting
the customers’ choices. Previous research introduced the impact of
customers’ service experience on their decision making: the concept of
customer satisfaction was introduced by Cardozo (1965) to describe the
state of disappointment or joy caused by the gap between consumers’
evaluation of service performance and their expectations, which was an
irrational decision-making behavior (Chopra et al., 2004; Kahneman

* Corresponding author at: Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics (ZUFE), Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China.
E-mail address: kuanghanbin@zufe.edu.cn (H. Kuang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2024.110022
Received 13 November 2022; Received in revised form 24 February 2024; Accepted 27 February 2024
Available online 1 March 2024
0360-8352/© 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Huang et al.
and Tversky, 1979) proposed the prospect theory to describe people’s
irrational decision-making behavior, and a nonlinear function is pro­
posed to describe people’s different feelings when facing gains or losses.
In this paper, based on the prospect theory, we propose nonlinear
functions to describe customer psychological behavior, and to depict
customer satisfaction quantitatively, thereby analyzing the impact of
customer satisfaction on the total distribution cost in fresh products
distribution.
In real life scenarios, the customer’s service experience may be
affected by many factors, among which, the delivery time and the
quality of fresh products play a crucial role in the fresh products dis­
tribution (Chiang and Russell, 2004; Zhang et al., 2018). Hence, it is of
great significance to simultaneously consider both delivery time and
products quality in the process of fresh products distribution, and to
balance the distribution cost and the customer satisfaction. In this
research, we try to investigate how to describe the customer psycho­
logical expectations by customer satisfaction functions regarding to
delivery time and products quality, and properly handle the VRP for
fresh products distribution considering customer satisfaction (VRPFPD-
CS).
To quantitatively measure customer satisfaction, we propose a time
satisfaction function and a quality satisfaction function, respectively.
Firstly, we update the traditional way of depicting time satisfaction
based on the prospect theory. When the delivery vehicle arrives earlier
or just on time, the customers’ service expectations will be satisfied; on
the contrary, if the vehicle arrives later than the time windows, the
customer’s satisfaction may behave differently according to their psy­
chological behavior. The concept of psychological reference point is
defined to describe the level of service expectation, in other words, the
degree of tolerance of customers for the late delivery. Then, the time
satisfaction function is proposed with a nonlinear decreasing trend.
Secondly, we update the traditional decay function of freshness with
constant rate considering the customer satisfaction. The concept of the
psychological sensitivity coefficient is introduced to describe the degree
of tolerance of customers for the loss of freshness. Then, the quality
satisfaction function is proposed with a nonlinear decreasing trend.
Need to mention that different customers may have different decreasing
trends in both the time satisfaction function and the quality satisfaction
function. Finally, a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINP)
model is proposed to solve the problem of fresh products distribution,
among which these two customer satisfaction functions are as
constraints.
To deal with the VRPFPD-CS, an improved Adaptive Large Neigh­
borhood Search algorithm (I-ALNS) is designed. The initial solution of
the algorithm is constructed by using greedy insertion method. With the
purpose of further expanding the searching range within the solution
space, new removal and insertion operators are also designed to conduct
large neighborhood search based on the time satisfaction function and
the quality satisfaction function. The other operators are either adapted
or inspired by existing work. The details of operator design are shown in
Subsection 4.3. Then, a new operational strategy is proposed to improve
the ability of the algorithm to jump out of local optimization by either
using the proper operators under some certain situations or adjusting the
probability of acceptance of the poor solutions. Finally, numerical ex­
periments on benchmark instances of standard Solomon instances
demonstrate the effectiveness and the efficiency of the I-ALNS, and the
influence of the customer psychological behavior on the vehicle routing
design of fresh products distribution is analyzed. The results indicate
that the total distribution cost shows a trend of decreasing first and then
increasing along with the increasing of both time satisfaction expecta­
tion and quality satisfaction expectation. With the same total distribu­
tion cost, delivery experience of customers may change significantly
when different distribution solutions are adopted.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews
related literature; Section 3 describes the problem and formulates a
MINP model of the proposed problem; Section 4 presents the details of
2
Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022
the I-ALNS; Section 5 designs numerical experiments to evaluate the
proposed model and algorithm; and Section 6 provides concluding re­
marks and pointers for further research.
2. Literature review
This research proposes the VRPFPD-CS. There are three streams of
literature related to this research: (1) VRP with time windows (VRPTW),
(2) VRP for fresh products distribution (VRPFPD), and (3) VRP consid­
ering customer satisfaction (VRP-CS).
2.1. The vehicle routing problem with time windows
The VRPTW can be classified by considering cases with hard time
windows or with soft time windows. Specifically, the models with hard
time windows indicate that the products must be delivered within time
periods expected by customers; and the models with soft time windows
are allowed to be violated with some penalty costs. Some studies
adopted hard time windows: Hu et al. (2018) studied the VRP with hard
time windows under demand and travel time uncertainty, and designed
a robust optimization model and a variable neighborhood search algo­
rithm to solve the proposed problem. Yuan et al. (2021) proposed a
column generation-based heuristic to solve the VRPTW, and the algo­
rithm showed high efficiency in solving large-scale problems. In addi­
tion, Errico et al. (2016) worked on the VRP with hard time windows
and random service time, and a two-stage stochastic program was
innovatively used for modeling. Then the problem was solved by A
Branch-Price-and-Cut Algorithm, and the extended function was deter­
mined to develop an efficient labeling algorithm. At the same time, some
studies focused on models with soft time windows: Qureshi et al. (2009)
established semi-soft time windows VRP by relaxing the early-arriving
penalty in VRPSTW to zero and only considering the late-arriving pen­
alty. Xu et al. (2019) studied the green VRP with time-varying vehicle
speed and soft time windows, where an improved non-dominated sort­
ing genetic algorithm is proposed to solve the multi-objective mixed
integer model of the problem with adaptive strategies and greedy stra­
tegies. What’s more, Chen et al. (2021) studied the VRPTW which
delivered by robots; Yu et al. (2019) designed a branch-and-price al­
gorithm to solve the green VRP for heterogeneous fleet with time
windows.
Considering the customer psychological behavior, the tolerance level
for customers varies, and they may behave differently when encoun­
tering late delivery. The research attempts to investigate how the total
distribution cost changes when the customer satisfaction cannot be fully
reached. However, the late delivery cannot be properly handled by using
hard time windows. In light of practical circumstances (Zhang et al.,
2020; Figliozzi, 2010), this research uses soft time windows to describe
the time periods expected by customers.
2.2. The vehicle routing problem for fresh products distribution
With the increasing demand for a variety of fresh products and the
rapid development of e-commerce, a new logistics pattern of fresh
products distribution is gradually developing. Some literatures consid­
ered products quality in the problem of fresh products distribution:
Osvald and Stirn (2008) studied the problem with travel time windows,
and modeled the influence of perishability as a part of the total distri­
bution cost, and then used heuristic tabu search algorithm to solve the
problem of fresh vegetables distribution. Mousavi et al. (2022) studied
the VRP with stochastic production for perishable products and designed
a five-phase algorithm to solve the stochastic mathematical model of the
proposed problem. The research greatly reduced the cost in the trans­
portation process. Considering the quality of the fresh products at the
delivery time is associated with refrigeration expenses, some researchers
worked on the temperature control of the refrigerated delivery vehicle
during the delivery of fresh products. To minimize expenses and reduce
M. Huang et al.
the detrimental effects of severe temperatures on food quality, Hsu and
Liu (2011) presented a multi-temperature joint distribution system and
achieved precise multi-temperature control logistics technology and
food handling capability. Wang et al. (2021) formulated and solved the
collaborative multi-center vehicle routing problem with resource
sharing and temperature control constraints, in which resource sharing
and temperature control constraints were considered in the problem to
facilitate the rational use of resources and reduce logistics operation
costs. Some representative solution methods with regard to the fresh
products distribution problem are introduced as follows: Chen et al.
(2019) designed an improved ALNS to solve VRP in an actual cold-chain
transportation company; Rahbari et al. (2019) proposed two robust bi-
objective models to solve the vehicle routing and scheduling problem
for perishable products under uncertainty.
The literatures above have studied the fresh products distribution
problem in different scenarios, and designed solution methods accord­
ingly. They focused on balancing the distribution cost, products fresh­
ness, and delivery time in the optimization process of the VRPFPD. In
this research, we study the fresh products distribution problem consid­
ering both the quality decay and the customer satisfaction. The
following subsection provides a summary of the literatures on customer
satisfaction.
2.3. The vehicle routing problem considering customer satisfaction
Nowadays, since the e-commerce platform has established an online
evaluation system of distribution services, various logistics companies
treat improving customer satisfaction as an important factor to improve
their competitiveness, and the research on customer satisfaction has
become a significantly important topic in the field of logistics service
supply chain for researchers and practitioners.
Some researchers consider customer satisfaction as a part of the
established models. Song et al. (2020) studied the VRPTW through an
improved artificial fish swarm algorithm, where a novel customer
satisfaction heuristic is embedded to make the problem close to the re­
ality. Stavropoulou (2022) considered customer satisfaction in the
consistent VRP with heterogeneous fleet and studied the consistency of
Fig. 1. Fresh products distribution routing design.
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Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022
both service and delivery time with purpose of ensuring customer
retention and brand loyalty. However, customers are irrational in most
cases and their shopping decisions will be affected by their psychological
behavior (Moon and Nelson, 2020). For example, major natural disasters
and social unrest can trigger irrational stockpiling or panic buying
behavior (Chen et al., 2020); unpleasant shopping experience will make
consumers disgust certain brands and even the online shopping plat­
forms they choose (Moon et al., 2021). To accurately describe cus­
tomers’ psychological behavior in the above occurrence, it is crucial to
apply appropriate theories. The prospect theory proposed by Kahneman
and Tversky (1979) made great contributions to research behavioral in
the investigation of bounded rationality. Liu et al. (2013) studied the
cooperation of a logistics service integrator and logistics service pro­
viders in the supply chain, where each logistics service provider pro­
posed a subjective utility function based on prospect theory. Zhou et al.
(2014) applied empirical data to analyze drivers’ behavior parameters
and used prospect theory to describe drivers’ route choice behavior
under changing information. In general, the prospect theory is suitable
for quantifying customers’ gains and losses based on their psychological
behavior.
Plenty of research considered customers’ attributes in the process of
optimizing the vehicle distribution routing by minimizing the distribu­
tion cost. Salani and Vacca (2011) and McNabb et al. (2015) worked on
the relationship between customer satisfaction and time windows. They
modelled the service time periods expected by customers as destructible
soft time windows and indestructible hard time windows according to
actual needs of customers in the distribution process. Meanwhile,
compared with ordinary products distribution, fresh products are
required to be delivered in an environment with proper constant tem­
perature throughout the whole process from the initial origin to final
customers. Then, keeping the freshness and quality of the products may
significantly increase the distribution cost. Bailey and Garforth (2014),
Amorim and Almada-Lobo (2014), and Song and Ko (2016) investigated
the relationship between customer service experience and fresh prod­
ucts quality. They claimed that the pursuit of high quality will greatly
increase the distribution cost, while the low quality of fresh products
will affect the service experience of customers. Therefore, it is significant
M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

to balance delivery time and products quality in the process of fresh

products distribution.
Some literatures treated customer satisfaction as objectives. Afshar-
Bakeshloo et al. (2016) proposed a green vehicle routing problem, and
considered transportation cost, pollution and customer satisfaction as
parts of the objective. They comprehensively balanced three parts of the
objective in the vehicle routing design. Zhang et al. (2012) presented the
modeling of VRP with one of the objectives is to maximize average
customers satisfaction. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction was also
viewed as constraints in some literatures, which reflected the indepen­
dent impact of customer satisfaction on specific issues (Teng et al., 2021;
Yuanguo and Shengyu, 2019). This research incorporates customer
satisfaction as constraints into the model to investigate the effect of
customer satisfaction on fresh products distribution.
Through reviewing the research content of the above literatures, the
customer satisfaction plays a critical role in handling VRP and the
Fig. 2. Freshness status of fresh products.
prospect theory plays a significant role in characterizing the customer
satisfaction. Since only a few of them took both the delivery time and
products quality into consideration simultaneously in fresh products
distribution, to fill the research gap, this research intends to describe return to the depot immediately after completing the distribution task.
customer satisfaction functions by considering the irrational psycho­ Note that a single distribution task cannot be split and should be
logical behavior of customers impacted by delivery time and products completed at one time. The depot has a hard time window, denoted as
quality, respectively. [ET0 , LT0 ]. ET0 is the departure time for all the vehicles, and no addi­
tional task will be dispatched halfway after their departure; and LT0
denotes the return time, and all vehicles should return to the depot
2.4. Contributions before it. Each customer i ∈ N has a demand of si (si ≤ Q) for different
types of products, which need to be delivered within a given time
We propose a VRPFPD-CS with the purpose of minimizing the dis­ window [ETi , LTi ], where ETi and LT i are used to define the lower and
tribution cost and design an I-ALNS to solve the nonlinear model in the upper bounds, respectively. Note that the customer time windows in this
proposed problem. In this research, the main contributions contain five study are set as soft time windows.
aspects: When a vehicle k is performing a distribution task at arc (i, j), the
capacity and traveling time of vehicle k between node i and node j are
⋅ We propose a VRPFPD-CS, where the impact of both delivery time denoted by wkij and tij , respectively. When a vehicle k arrives at customer
and the fresh products quality on the customer psychological k
i ∈ N, it will wait if arriving earlier than ETi , where twi denotes the
behavior are focused.
waiting time. On the contrary, it will serve immediately and finish the
⋅ We establish a MINP model to handle the proposed problem, among
task with the service time. The service time for all delivery tasks is the
which, both a nonlinear time satisfaction function and a nonlinear
same and denoted by ts . Need to mention that when the customer
quality satisfaction function are introduced to quantitatively mea­
satisfaction is considered, different customers may have various level of
sure customer satisfaction with the purpose of analyzing the
tolerance for late delivery and freshness loss of products. We attempt to
customer psychological behavior.
optimize the distribution routes with the main objective of minimizing
⋅ We design an I-ALNS to solve the model with a new strategy to jump
the distribution cost Z while satisfying the constrains, such as the de­
out of the local optimal solutions, and new removal and insertion
mand of each customer, the satisfaction expectation of each customer
operators based on satisfaction functions.
and the vehicle maximum capacity.
⋅ We depict customer satisfaction from delivery time and products
As shown in Fig. 1, each customer has their own time windows, and
quality, which can balance the delivery experience of customers and
different types of fresh products may have different preservation times.
the enterprise’s distribution costs effectively.
Need to mention that we assume the fresh products can be delivered
⋅ We propose a way to depict the customer satisfaction functions,
with appropriate temperature control, and quality degradation is only
which can develop economical fresh products distribution strategies
related to delivery time, as shown in Fig. 2.
to well satisfy customer expectations.
To mathematically formulate the MINP model of the VRPFPD-CS, the
notations and corresponding descriptions are provided as shown in
3. Problem description and formulation Table 1.

3.1. Description for VRPFPD-CS 3.2. Time penalty function construction

In this section, we present the description of the VRPFPD-CS alone
with a MINP model. We assume that a fresh distribution company dis­
tributes different kinds of fresh products to customers and will not be out
of stocks, as shown in Fig. 1. Let G = (N+ , A) be a complete directed
graph, where N+ = {0, 1, ⋯, n} is the node set, and A = {(i, j) : i, j ∈ N+ ,
i∕= j} is the arc set, where dij is use to denote the arc distance. The depot,
denoted by 0, has a fleet of refrigerated delivery vehicles, expressed as a
set K = {1, 2, ⋯, k}, each of them is equipped with the same maximum
load of Q, and has the same travel speed of v. To ensure that a feasible
solution can be obtained, we assume that the number of delivery vehi­
cles is sufficient in each instance. The distribution task is to deliver
products to a given set of customers, denoted by N = {1, 2, ⋯, n}, and
In real life scenarios, fresh products may be delivered earlier or later
than the customer time windows. When a vehicle k arrives at customer
i ∈ N, with time window [ETi ,LTi ], if the vehicle arrives earlier than ETi ,
it will wait until the time window open before serving, a waiting cost
will be charged; if the delivery vehicle arrives falling within the interval
of [ETi ,LT i ], the punishment will be 0; and if the delivery vehicle arrives
later than LTi , customer need to wait and a customer dissatisfaction cost
will be charged. The formula of time penalty function zpi is as follows:

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M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

Table 1
Description of other notations.
Notation Description

i, j Index for individual customer node

0 Index for distribution depot
k Index for delivery vehicle
G Directed graph
A Set of arcs
N Set of customer nodes
N+ Set of customer nodes and depot,N ∪ {0}
K Set of delivery vehicles
Z Total distribution cost
γ1 (γ2 ) Coefficient of time penalty function
zt Travel cost of unit distance
zpi Penalty cost of delivery time for customer node i ∈ N
zu Cost of single vehicle
f Time satisfaction function
f0i Customer psychological reference point of customer node i ∈ N
θ Time satisfaction expectation (It represents the degree of customers’ time
satisfaction that needs to be fulfilled, ranging from 0 to 1)
g Quality satisfaction function
ω Quality satisfaction expectation (It represents the degree of customers’
quality satisfaction that needs to be fulfilled, ranging from 0 to 1)
ETi (LTi ) Left (Right) soft time windows endpoint of customer node i ∈ N
ΔTref Delay time of customer psychological reference point Fig. 3. Distribution of time penalty cost of different delivery time.
T0i Time of customer psychological reference point for customer node i ∈ N
α(β) The risk attitude coefficients of time satisfaction function in the evaluation of uncertain options, the value function is concave for
The loss aversion coefficient of time satisfaction function
λ
gains and convex for losses.
ρi Shrinkage coefficient of time satisfaction function for customer node i ∈
N In this research, we propose a theoretical framework based on
FTi1 The start time to decline of products quality for customer node i ∈ N prospect theory, specifically, the loss aversion, diminishing sensitivity,
FTi2 The time when products quality reaches zero in products quality for and dependent reference point, to construct the time satisfaction func­
customer node i ∈ N tion in the VRPFPD-CS. Compared with the time penalty function, the
μi Sensitivity coefficient of decline in products quality for customer node i ∈
time satisfaction function depicts the irrational psychological behavior
N
Q Maximum capacity of vehicle from the perspective of customers.
wkij Capacity of vehicle k ∈ K between node i ∈ N+ and node j ∈ N+ When the delivery vehicle k arrives at the customer point i ∈ N, with
si Requirement of product ordered by customer at node i ∈ N time window [ETi , LTi ], if the vehicle arrives earlier than ETi , the
dij Distance between node i ∈ N+ and node j ∈ N+ customer will be served at ETi , and the value of the customer time
v Travel speed of vehicle satisfaction is set to be 1; if the vehicle arrives falling within the interval
tij Traveling time between node i ∈ N+ and node j ∈ N+
of [ETi ,LTi ], the value of the customer time satisfaction is also set to be 1;
ts Required service time of customer
k
twi Waiting time of customer node i ∈ N by vehicle k ∈ K and if it arrives later than LTi , it will cause a decrease in customer
tik Decision variable on the arriving time of customer node i ∈ N+ by vehicle satisfaction depending on the arriving time.
k∈K We focus on the situation when the delivery arrives later than LTi ,
xkij Binary decision variable indicating whether the vehicle k ∈ K travel from and incorporate the prospect theory into the time satisfaction function
node i ∈ N+ to node j ∈ N+ ( )
Binary decision variable indicating whether the customer at node i ∈ N is
(f tik ) to consider customers’ attitude of lose-aversion. Customers with
xki
served by vehicle k ∈ K different level of tolerance for late delivery may behave differently.
Then, we set the psychological reference point f0i (i ∈ N) to denote the
⎧ acceptability of late delivery for the customer, and let the value of f0i
⎪
⎪ ∑N ( ) indicate the tolerance of late delivery for the customer. The corre­
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
γ1 • i=1
ET i − tik , tik ∈ [0, ET i ] sponding delivery time of f0i is denoted by T0i , and the time span be­
⎨
tween T0i and LTi is denoted as ΔTref . The loss aversion coefficient is
zpi = 0, tik ∈ [ET i , LT i ] (1)
⎪
⎪
⎪ ∑N ( denoted by λ, and the risk attitude coefficients, denoted by α,
⎪ )
⎪
⎪ tk − LT i , tik ∈ [LT i , ∞] β(0 < α ≤ β < 1), are used to reflect the distribution of the customer
⎩ γ2 •
⎪ i=1 i
satisfaction, which is not linear along with the changes of late delivery
time. Then, the time satisfaction function is introduced as follows:
where coefficient γ2 of time penalty function is set to be larger than ⎧
coefficient γ 1 , because the late delivery will cause a greater penalty cost ⎪
⎪
⎪ [ ]
to compensate for the customer’s waiting time, and the customer’s ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ 0, tik ∕∈ 0, T0i + ΔTref
⎪
satisfaction will also be reduced. The distribution of zpi at different tik is ⎪
⎪
⎪ 1, tik ∈ [0, LT i ]
⎪
⎪
shown in Fig. 3. ⎪
⎪
⎪ ( )α
⎪
⎪ T0i − tik
( k) ⎨ f0i + ρi • , tik ∈ (LT i , T0i )
f ti = ΔTref (2)
3.3. Customer satisfaction function construction ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ f , t k
= T
⎪
⎪ 0i i 0i
⎪
⎪ (k )β
3.3.1. Time satisfaction function ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ t − T 0i ( ]
Prospect theory, also known as the loss-aversion theory, is used to
⎪
⎪ f − λ • ρi • i , tik ∈ T0i , T0i + ΔTref
⎪ 0i
⎪ ΔT ref
⎪
describe the psychological behavior of decision makers under conditions ⎩
of risk. Kahneman and Tversky (1979) proposed a value function to ( )
describe the marginal influence on decision makers in value changes where if the arriving time tik < T0i , f tik will decrease slowly; if
along with the distance from the reference point treated as a status quo. tik > T0i , the customer may become impatient and show lose aversion,
Since the decision makers are more sensitive for loss than that for gains

5
M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

( )
and the value of f tik will decrease sharply along with tik . Note that the function is introduced as follows:
( )
coefficient, denoted by ρi (i ∈ N), is used to ensure that f tik ≤ 1, and to ⎧
( k) ( ) ⎪
⎪
ensure f ti ≥ 0, the time range of the decreasing process for f tik ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
1, 0 ≤ tik < FT i1
( k) ⎪ ( )μi
starting from T0i is set to be ΔTref . The distribution of f ti at different tik ( ) ⎨
FT i2 − tik
g tik = , FT i1 ≤ tik ≤ FT i2 (3)
is shown in Fig. 4. ⎪
⎪ FT i2 − FT i1
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩ 0, tik > FT i2
3.3.2. Quality satisfaction function
Customers often pay much attention to the quality of products,
where if μi > 1, the customer is more sensitive to the decreasing of
especially when they choose perishable products. Therefore, we should
freshness; if 0 < μi < 1, the customer has a high tolerance for the
consider both the decay function of quality and the customer psycho­
decreasing of freshness. It is worth mentioning that when μi = 1, the
logical behavior in the construction of the quality satisfaction function.
function is the same as the decay function of quality.
We are assuming that each vehicle can maintain the proper temperature
Moreover, this research considers that the tolerance of customers for
control range for the fresh products. As a result, the quality satisfaction
freshness loss is not invariable, and it will decrease along with the
function is solely dependent on the decay function of quality, which is
decreasing of products quality, and μi will increase along with the
correlated with delivery time.
decreasing of the customer tolerance. Therefore, the change of μi is
To carry out our idea, we need find out how to construct the decay
defined as follows:
function of quality. To simplify the calculation, the traditional decay
( )
function of freshness is depicted by using constant rate. The disadvan­ FT i2 − tik
tage of this depiction is that it cannot correctly reflect the preservation μinew = μiold • 1 + (4)
FT i2 − FT i1
time of fresh products (Watada and Qi, 1999; Corradini, 2018). During ( )
the preservation time, the quality of fresh products may remain the The distribution of g tik at different tik is shown in Fig. 5.
same, and the preservation time for different types of products may vary.
In this research, we propose a decay function of quality by adding 3.3.3. Discussion about customer satisfaction functions
freshness preservation time according to the types of fresh products, Each customer i ∈ N with time window [ETi , LT i ] will be served by a
( ) ( )
where the preservation time is ranging from 0 to FT i1 , and the initiative vehicle k. Both the g tik and f tik will change depending on the different
decreasing time of freshness and the time when the freshness decreases delivery time. Due to different customer attributes, if FT i1 > LT i , it
to zero are denoted as FT i1 and FT i2 (i ∈ N), respectively. shows that the customer pays more attention to the delivery time; if
Based on the proposed decay function of quality, we provide the FT i1 < LT i , it shows that the customer pays more attention to the quality
quality satisfaction function by considering customer satisfaction. We of product received; and if FT i1 = LT i , it demonstrates that the customer
assume that the decay of fresh products can only be influenced by the values both delivery time and products quality.
delivery time tik . When a vehicle k arrives at customer i ∈ N, with time Fig. 6 shows a special case when FT i1 < ETi and the vehicle arrives
window [ETi , LTi ]. If the vehicle arrives earlier than FT i1 , the customer earlier than ETi , the vehicle should wait until ETi before serving. During
will receive the fresh products with high quality, and the value of the the waiting period, the freshness of the product is still diminishing.
customer quality satisfaction is set to be 1; if the vehicle arrives falling Therefore, the value of customer quality satisfaction should be calcu­
within the interval of [FT i1 , FTi2 ], it will cause a decrease in customer lated at ETi (point B) rather than the arrival time of the vehicle.
quality satisfaction depending on the arriving time, where sensitivity
coefficient, denoted by μi , is set to describe the tolerance of customer i 3.4. Mathematical formulation
for freshness loss; and if it arrives later than FT i2 , the customer will
receive unacceptable fresh products and behave completely dissatisfied In this subsection, we propose a MINP model for the proposed
for the delivery service, where the value of the customer quality satis­ VRPFPD-CS problem with both the time satisfaction function and the
faction is also set to be 0. Finally, the customer satisfaction function quality satisfaction function as constraint conditions. The objective in
( )
(g tik ) for fresh products quality is constructed. The quality satisfaction the MINP model is to minimize the total distribution cost, which con

Fig. 4. Distribution of customer time satisfaction of different delivery time.

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M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

Fig. 5. Distribution of customer quality satisfaction of different delivery time.

0 ≤ wkij • xijk ≤ Q, ∀i ∈ N + , j ∈ N + , k ∈ K (12)

∑K
xk = 1, ∀i ∈ N (13)
k=1 i

∑N
xk = xjk , ∀j ∈ N, k ∈ K (14)
i=1 ij

∑N
xk
j=1 ij
= xik , ∀i ∈ N, k ∈ K (15)

∑K ∑N ∑K ∑N
k=1
xk
j=1 0j
= k=1
xk
i=1 i0
≤K (16)

xkij ∈ {0, 1}, ∀i ∈ N + , j ∈ N + , k ∈ K (17)

xki ∈ {0, 1}, ∀i ∈ N, k ∈ K (18)

In the formulations above, the objective function (8) aims to mini­

mize the total distribution cost. Constraint (9) and (10) represent the
Fig. 6. A special case in distribution. customers’ expectation of time satisfaction and quality satisfaction,
respectively. Constraints (11) and (12) represent vehicle load con­
tains the vehicle travel cost, the vehicle usage cost and the time penalty straints. Constraints (13) ensure that each customer is served and only
cost. Among them, the travel cost of unit distance and usage cost of served once. Constraints (14) and (15) represent vehicle flow balance
individual vehicle are denoted by zt and zu, respectively. Besides, the constraints. Constraint (16) ensures that each vehicle starts from the
calculation formulas of the arriving time, travel time and waiting time distribution depot and returns to the depot after completing the task,
for the vehicle are defined as follows: while the number of vehicles used will not exceed K. Constraints (17)
∑N + ( ) and (18) show the values of binary decision variables.
tjk = tik + ts + twi
k
+ tij • xijk , ∀j ∈ N + , k ∈ K (5)
i=0
4. A metaheuristic algorithm for the VRPFPD-CS
dij
tij = , ∀i ∈ N + , j ∈ N + (6)
v VRPTW is a typical NP-hard problem (Çetinkaya et al., 2013; Özarık
{( ) k } et al., 2023; Dönmez et al., 2022). The nonlinear satisfaction constraints
k
twi = max ET i − tik •xi , 0 , ∀i ∈ N, k ∈ K (7)
of VRPFPD-CS cannot be changed to linear constraints and the solution
The MINP model is established as follows: space is superlinear as the dimension of customer grows at the same
∑K ∑N + ∑N + ∑N ∑K ∑N time. To solve medium-sized or large-sized problems, exact decompo­
minimizeOBJ = zt • k=1 i=0 j=0
dij • xkij + zu • j=1
xk
k=1 0j
+ i=1
zpi sition or heuristic solution approaches could be used. Therefore, an I-
(8) ALNS is proposed to achieve high quality solutions in this research,
where a new strategy is proposed to jump out of the local optimal so­
subject to: lutions and new operators are designed to expand the searching range
( ( k) )
f ti − θ • xki ≥ 0, ∀i ∈ N, k ∈ K (9) within the solution space by considering customer satisfaction. The so­
lution of the proposed problem contains a set of delivery routes and each
( ( k) ) route is connected by a sequence of customers.
g ti − ω • xki ≥ 0, ∀i ∈ N, k ∈ K (10)

∑N + ∑K ∑N + ∑K
(11) 4.1. Introduction of ALNS
i=0 k=1
wkij • xkij − sj ≤ i=0 k=1
wkji • xjik , ∀j ∈ N +

ALNS is a metaheuristic which is an extension of the Large

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M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

Neighborhood Search (LNS) heuristic, which is proposed by Shaw another through removal and insertion operators.
(1998). The ALNS metaheuristic was introduced to solve several VRPs In order to improve the ability of the algorithm to jump out of local
by Ropke and Pisinger (2006), who used it to solve the pickup and de­ optimal solutions, we design a new strategy as follows:
livery problem with time windows. Compared with traditional methods,
it is characterized by large moves that are carried out by removal and ⋅ If the number of times (θcur ) that the current solution has not been
insertion operators, which can be suitably designed based on the pro­ continuously updated reaches a pre-defined threshold, a special
posed problems. The algorithm uses removal and insertion to generate removal operator will be selected, and the current solution will be
large neighborhoods based on the initial solution, thereby extending the greatly destroyed in the next iteration.
searching space, and generate a new solution at each iteration. The it­ ⋅ If the number of times (θglobal ) that the global optimal solution has not
erations are carried out until the number of iterations reaching the limit been continuously updated reaches a pre-defined threshold, the
and the best feasible solution can be found. The ALNS metaheuristic has temperature in the SA will be adjusted to improve the probability of
proven its effectiveness through a variety of applications (Franceschetti accepting worse solutions.
et al., 2017; Sacramento et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2019; Chen et al., 2018).
The framework of the I-ALNS is outlined as shown in Algorithm 1.
4.2. The initial feasible solution
Given an initial solution yinit , iterations will run to consistently improve
the initial solution until the termination condition is reached. At each
The initial solution is generated based on the Greedy Insertion
iteration, for the current solution ycur , one removal operator is used to
method, which mainly contains three steps.
appropriately remove part of it, and one insertion operator is used to
make it feasible. Then, a neighborhood solution ynew is generated. Both
(1) The algorithm randomly selects a customer and set it as the first
types of operators are selected by the adaptive mechanism that will be
customer of the current route. It sequentially adds routes and
described in 4.4. The objective value is denoted by z(y). If
( ) inserts customers satisfying constraints.
z ynew ≤ z(ycur ), the new solution ynew will be accepted; and if
( ) (2) The algorithm attempts to insert each and every customer
z ynew > z(ycur ), the new solution ynew will be accepted following a somewhere in current routes with the lowest insertion cost. Note
probability function, which is based on the acceptance criterion of that each customer may have many possible insert positions in
Simulated Annealing (SA) and controlled by a temperature parameter T. the current route. When the current route cannot satisfy all
The probability function is calculated as e− (z(ynew )− z(ycur ))/T . The value of T constraints, new routes will be generated. The insertions of cus­
is initially set as T = η • z(yinit ) and will decrease after each iteration tomers are repeatedly tested until no more customers have a
following the formula T = cT • T, where cT ∈ (0, 1) represents the feasible insertion.
( )
cooling rate. Note that if z ycur < z(ybest ), the current best solution ybest (3) When all the customers are inserted into current routes with the
will be updated. The termination condition of the I-ALNS is that the total lowest insertion cost and a feasible solution yinit will be generated.
number of iterations reaches its limit, and at that time ybest will be output
as the final solution. The insertion cost for a customer is calculated as the difference in the
Algorithm 1. (The framework of the I-ALNS) objective value between whether inserting it into current solution. For
example, we set z(μ) represent the objective value of current solution
1 Input: Initial solution yinit , set ycur = yinit , ybest = yinit , z(ybest ) = z(yinit )
2 Initialize each removal and insertion operator: The score is 0 and the weight is 1 without customer μ, and set z′(μ) represent the objective value of the
3 Initialize the temperature T as T = η • z(yinit ) solution after μ is inserted. Then the insertion cost Δz for μ is calculated
4 Set the iteration counter: k = 1, initialize seg as z′(μ) − z(μ).
5 while: k ≤ θ do
6 Select the removal and insertion operators
7 Removal operator works, then ycur →y*new 4.3. Search mechanism
8 Insertion operator works, then y*new →ynew
( )
9 if:z ynew ≤ z(ycur )
( ) ( ) Based on the generated initial feasible solution, the removal and
10 ycur = ynew , z ycur = z ynew
11 end if
insertion operators in the I-ALNS are introduced to reconstruct current
12 else solutions, thereby obtaining a large neighborhoods range, and extending
13 if: SA acceptance criterion is accepted then
( ) ( )
the searching space. Here, taking the problem with six customers as an
14 ycur = ynew , z ycur = z ynew
15 end if
16 end else
( ) ( )
17 if:z ycur < z ybest
( ) ( )
18 ybest = ycur , z ybest = z ycur
19 end if
20 Update ycur and ybest
21 T = cT • T, k = k + 1
22 if:k = seg
23 Reset the probability and score of the operators
24 end if
25 end while
26 Output:ybest

During the generation of yinit , all constraints in the MINP model should
be satisfied. In the subsequent repairing process by using insertion op­
erators, those constraints are used to judge whether the allocation of
insertion position is reasonable. Therefore, we can ensure the feasibility
of each ynew . Here, when a customer is inserted between two customers
on a certain route, the space between these two customers is known as
the insertion location. Reconstructing the current solution entails
removing several customers and then inserting them back one after Fig. 7. An example for VRPFPD-CS.

8
M. Huang et al.
example, assume that the initial solution contains two routes, as shown
in Fig. 7 (a). A removal operator and an insertion operator are selected
according to the roulette-wheel mechanism. In Fig. 7 (b), when the
removal operator removes customer 3, a destroyed solution and a
removal set can be produced. Then, customer 3 will be inserted by the
insertion operator and a neighborhood solution will be generated, as
shown in Fig. 7 (c). It is crucial that all time variables of each route in the
model will be updated when the customer is inserted, so the objective of
the new solution may change greatly.
4.3.1. Removal operators
Given a null removal set (Ω) and a predetermined removal number
(Γ), the removal operators select Γ customers from the current solution
and put them into Ω. Then, a destroyed solution will be generated.
⋅ Random Removal (RR): This operator randomly selects Γ cus­
tomers and then removes them.
⋅ Quality Shaw Removal (QSR): This operator is designed to remove
some customers with similar relatedness. First, a reference customer
is randomly selected, and the relatedness between all the other
customers and the reference customer are calculated, respectively.
Then, QSR removes the reference customer and a certain number of
the most closely related customers with it. Specifically, the related­
ness Si,j between customer j and the reference customer i is defined as
follows:
⃒ ⃒
Si,j = ϕ1 • dij + ϕ2 •|qi − qj |+ϕ3 • ⃒FT1i − FT1j ⃒ + ϕ4 • lij (19)
where dij represents the distance between customer i and j, qi rep­
resents the demand of i, FT1i represents the initiative decreasing time
of customer satisfaction depending on freshness for i, and lij repre­
sents whether i and j belong to the same route. If not, then lij = 1;
otherwise, lij = − 1. ϕ1 , ϕ2 , ϕ3 , ϕ4 denotes the weights of different
parameters in this formula. The smaller the value of Si,j is, the higher
relatedness between customers will be.
⋅ Worst Cost Removal (WCR): This operator is adapted to remove a
set of customers that contribute most to the objective value. First, a
removal cost for each customer is calculated as the difference be­
tween the objective values of routes with and without the customer.
Then, WCR removes Γ customers based on the descending sequence
of their removal costs. Note that the removal cost may be corre­
spondingly changed when some customers are removed. Then, when
a customer is removed, the removal cost for the rest of customers will
be recalculated.
⋅ Worst Travel Cost Removal (WCTR): This operator is similar to
WCR, it considers the vehicle travel cost instead of the total distri­
bution cost when calculating the removal cost.
⋅ Worst Time Satisfaction Removal (WTSR): This operator removes
Γ customers based on the ascending sequence of their time
satisfaction.
⋅ Time Satisfaction Similarity Removal (TSSR): This operator is
introduced to remove the customers who are similar in time satis­
faction. First, a reference customer is randomly selected, and the gap
of time satisfaction between the other customers and the reference
customer are calculated, respectively. Then, the TSSR removes the
reference customer and a certain number of customers based on the
ascending sequence of the gap.
4.3.2. Insertion operators
The insertion operators are used to insert Γ customers in Ω into the
current partial solution, and the insertion will repeat until Ω becomes
empty again. Then a neighborhood solution will be generated. Note that
when the current partial solution is inserted by a customer, all the pa­
rameters in the model will be updated immediately.
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Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022
⋅ Greedy Insertion (GI): This operator calculates the insertion cost
(Δz) of inserting each customer from Ω into all insertable position.
Then, the customer and its corresponding position with the mini­
mum Δz are chosen.
⋅ Sequence Greedy Insertion (SGI): This operator is similar to GI, it
randomly selects a customer from Ω and inserts it into the position
with minimum Δz.
⋅ Travel Cost Greedy Insertion (TCGI): This operator is similar to GI,
but it considers the vehicle travel cost instead of the total distribution
cost when calculating Δz.
⋅ Regret Insertion (RI): This operator selects each customer from Ω,
and calculates the gap between each customer’s minimum Δz and
the second minimum Δz, and the gap is defined as the customer’s
regret value. Then, the operator finds the customer with the greatest
regret value and inserts it into the corresponding position with
minimum Δz.
⋅ Sequence Regret Insertion (SRI): This operator is similar to SGI,
but it selects the insertion position for a customer with the greatest
regret value.
We exclusively design three new operators according to the charac­
teristics of VRPFPD-CS. Specifically, the second, fifth and sixth removal
operators are newly-designed and the other operators are adapted or
inspired by existing works (Shaw, 1998; Ropke and Pisinger, 2006;
Pisinger and Ropke, 2007; Demir et al., 2012; Eshtehadi et al., 2020).
The second removal operator is designed to improve the quality of
products received by customers; the fifth removal operator is designed
to remove customers with poor time satisfaction; and the sixth removal
operator is designed to remove customers with similar time satisfaction.
To improve the ability of the algorithm to jump out of local optimal
solutions, a new strategy is introduced. Then, the framework of our
proposed I-ALNS is drawn to distinguish it from previous approaches, as
shown in Fig. 8. Need to mention that the contributions of I-ALNS are
illustrated within the dotted box on the right side of the figure.
4.4. The adaptive mechanism
The whole searching process of the I-ALNS is divided into many
segments, and each segment contains a certain number of iterations. The
adaptive mechanism is designed to improve the performance of opera­
tors during the removal and insertion operations. The roulette-wheel
mechanism is incorporated into the adaptive mechanism, the initial
score for each operator is set to be 1, and relevant points will be added to
removal operators and insertion operators used at each iteration. Note
that the weight for each operator can be identified based on its score at
the end of every segment, and the weight of an operator impacts its
probability to be chosen. The rules of adding points for operators are
listed as follows:
(1) If ynew < ybest , the corresponding operators get σ1 points.
(2) If ynew ≤ ycur , the corresponding operators get σ 2 points.
(3) If ynew > ycur , but ynew is still accepted as ycur , the corresponding
operators get σ3 points.
(4) If ynew > ycur , and ynew is not accepted, the corresponding opera­
tors get σ 4 points.
At the end of each segment, the weight of each operator will be
updated according to its score, and the scores for all the operators will be
reset to be 1. The weight of operator i in segment j is defined as follows:
wi,j+1 = (1 − ρ) • wi,j + ρ •
πi,j
(20)
θi,j
where wi,j denotes the weight of i in segment j, πi,j denotes the total
score of i in segment j, θi,j denotes the number of times that i has been
used in segment j, and ρ ∈ [0, 1] denotes the reaction factor.
Need to mention that when θcur reaches the pre-defined threshold, a
M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

Fig. 8. An illustration of the framework of the I-ALNS.

large-scale random removal operator will be used.
5. Numerical experiments
5.1. Experiment preparation
In 1987, Solomon (1987) introduced well-known VRPTW bench­
mark instances, which are used by most researchers. In this research,
based on the characteristic of the proposed VRPFPD-CS, the small-scale
instances containing 8 customers in Solomon_C101, the medium-scale
instances containing 25 and 50 customers in both Solomon_C101 and
Solomon_R101, and a real case of Hema Fresh are designed for ALNS
analysis. Then, the instances with 25 customers in Solomon_R101 are
selected to analyze the effect of customer time satisfaction and quality
satisfaction on the total distribution cost, respectively. Furthermore, this
research develops efficient vehicle routes for fresh products distribution
with the minimum distribution cost considering both two satisfaction
constraints, and provide management insights for related decision
makers by carrying out a thorough analysis.
In the numerical experiments of the proposed VRPFPD-CS, we set the
risk attitude coefficient α = β = 0.88 given by Kahneman and Tversky
(1979) to describe the time satisfaction function; we set the coefficient
γ 1 = 1, γ2 = 2.25 to describe the time penalty cost function; the unit
waiting cost for early arrival is set to 0.5, and the unit penalty cost for
late arrival is set to 1; and the unit travel cost is 1 and the cost of single
vehicle used is 50. Note that the initiative decreasing time of freshness
and the time when the freshness decreases to zero for each customer are
randomly generated, and the ΔTref is set to 30. The sensitivity analysis is
carried out on four parameters as shown in Table 2. Five instances are
randomly generated, and each of them contains 25 customers. Each
instance with given combination of four parameters is solved by 20
times. Then, the average values of the total distribution cost for the five
instances are calculated as shown in Table 2. The rest of the parameters
are chosen based on similar experiments. In total, all parameters in the
ALNS are listed in Table 3.
The numerical experiments ran on a personal computer equipped
with Inter Core CPU (2.5 GHz) and 8 GB RAM, running Windows 10 (64-
bit). And the whole algorithm is programmed in Java and the Java
compiler version is IntelliJ-IDEA 2021.2.
5.2. ALNS analysis
In this subsection, we evaluate the performance of the ALNS and the
improvement of the initial solution that generated with the Greedy
Insertion method. Small-scale instances, four benchmark instances, and
a real case with 25 customers are designed for the following
experiments.
5.2.1. Performance of the algorithm
To demonstrate the effectiveness of I-ALNS, small-scale instances are
randomly generated by Solomon_C101 and solved by Gurobi, S-ALNS,
and I-ALNS respectively. As shown in Table 4, for the instance C101-8,
Table 3
Algorithm parameter list.
Parameter definition Value

The total number of iterations 3000

The number of each segment 100
Table 2 θbest 200
Sensitivity analysis on four parameters. θcur 10
ρ 0.3
σ1 σ2 σ3 σ4 Average value σ1 σ2 σ3 σ4 Average value
cT 0.9992
16 5 10 5 1254.72 10 5 10 5 1249.72 σ1 16
16 5 10 8 1266.59 10 5 10 8 1252.77 σ2 8
16 5 16 5 1264.38 10 5 16 5 1254.01 σ3 10
16 5 16 8 1275.49 10 5 16 8 1249.63 σ4 5
16 8 10 5 1248.25 10 8 10 5 1262.89 ϕ1 0.2
16 8 10 8 1253.16 10 8 10 8 1259.76 ϕ2 0.2
16 8 16 5 1254.61 10 8 16 5 1265.91 ϕ3 0.5
16 8 16 8 1250.53 10 8 16 8 1254.34 ϕ4 0.1

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M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

Table 4 Beijing. Since we cannot obtain the detailed information of the cost
Comparison of algorithm performance. components for each route, we form an instance using real locations and
Instance ALNS Best Worst Average Variance Average random information.
version known known value solution Notes that the given customer satisfaction expectations are all set to
value value time (s) be 0.8; the customer time satisfaction reference point is set to 0.8; the
C101-8 I-ALNS 228.52 228.52 228.52 0.00 0.76 customer quality satisfaction sensitivity coefficient is set to 1.0; and 20
S-ALNS 228.52 228.52 228.52 0.00 0.79 separate parallel experiments are carried out. The results are shown in
Gurobi 228.52 – – – 0.94 Table 4.
C101- I-ALNS 461.78 470.19 465.46 2.47 4.39
25 S-ALNS 463.46 500.9 471.18 8.69 5.92
When the number of customers adds up to 25 or more, the problems
Gurobi – – – – – cannot be solved by Gurobi. For the instance of C101-25, I-ALNS has a
C101- I-ALNS 689.81 837.51 795.82 31.69 48.13 considerable improvement compared with S-ALNS for achieving a better
50 S-ALNS 1283.23 1543.61 1435.36 60.73 70.33 solution with less calculation time. For the instance of C101-50, I-ALNS
Gurobi – – – – –
can obtain better feasible solutions, and the worst solution of I-ALNS is
R101- I-ALNS 1137.49 1192.43 1172.53 13.14 4.76
25 S-ALNS 1157.53 1248.55 1196.57 25.36 6.98 even better than the best solution of S-ALNS. The results of the C101-50
Gurobi – – – – – show that S-ALNS may fall into the local optimization, whereas I-ALNS
R101- I-ALNS 1857.88 2160.01 2020.46 66.31 49.77 can jump out of the local optimization and search for a soundly opti­
50 S-ALNS 1935.58 2195.79 2077.14 75.48 65.49 mized solution. Moreover, I-ALNS has less solution time, indicating that
Gurobi
the removal operators and insertion operators designed according to the
– – – – –
Hema I-ALNS 598.13 729.76 638.71 28.04 10.79
Fresh S- 629.56 808.12 683.46 38.71 11.85 VRPFPD-CS can effectively save the solution time and obtain better
ALNS solutions at the same time. For the instances of R101-25, R101-50 and
Gurobi – – – – – Hema Fresh, I-ALNS can still obtain better feasible solutions compared
with S-ALNS. Specifically, the average value, variance and average so­
lution time of I-ALNS are all better than those of S-ALNS.
the results of these three methods are identical, which demonstrate that
both the S-ALNS and I-ALNS can produce precise solutions with 8 cus­
5.2.2. The initial solution adoption
tomers, and the proposed I-ALNS uses the least calculation time (0.76 s).
The instances of C101-25 and R101-25 are used to study the impact
In order to clarify the practical application of the proposed algo­
of the initial solution on the final solution through I-ALNS, and the re­
rithm, we test our algorithm in a real case to compare the performance
sults are shown in Fig. 10 (a) and Fig. 10 (b), respectively. The results in
between the standard ALNS (S-ALNS) and the I-ALNS for solving this
Fig. 10 (a) shows that I-ALNS has about 95 % improvement compared
proposed problem. Fig. 9 illustrates one of the Hema Fresh (Hema
with the initial solution for instance C101-25. In Fig. 10 (b), the
Xiansheng) shops in Beijing. Driven by data analysis and smart technical
improvement can reach about 50 % for instance R101-25. It is demon­
support, the Alibaba’s fresh food commerce platform offering online and
strated that the final solution cannot be significantly impacted even
offline retail services. It promises free delivery of fresh products, such as
when the adopted initial solution varies, and the proposed I-ALNS can
fruits and live or cooked seafood within a radius of 3 km. In this case, the
reach a relatively stable performance.
shop has a single depot (indicated by the red positioning sign) to serve
25 customers (indicated by the red hollow circle) across a block in

Fig. 9. Locations of depot and customers.

11
M. Huang et al.
Fig. 10. Improvement of the initial solution.
5.3. Customer satisfaction analysis
In this subsection, we analyze the influence of customer satisfaction
on the total distribution, considering time satisfaction constraints and
quality satisfaction constraints work separately or together in the model.
The instance R101-25 is selected for the following experiments and 20
separate parallel experiments are carried out.
5.3.1. The effect of time satisfaction
The quality satisfaction expectation is set to 0.1 and the customer
quality satisfaction sensitivity coefficient is set to 1.0. The experiments
are conducted under three different reference points (Ref) of customer
time satisfaction. Finally, the results are sorted out to obtain the curve of
the time satisfaction expectation and the average total distribution cost,
as shown in Table 5 and Fig. 11 below.
Along with the increasing of the time satisfaction expectations, the
total distribution cost shows a trend of decreasing first and then
increasing. The decreasing trend is caused by decreasing lateness of
service vehicles, thereby reducing the cost of time penalty, and saving
the total distribution cost; and the rising part is because the continuous
12
Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022
increasing of expectations can only be met by adding extra service ve­
hicles, thereby increasing the cost of used vehicles. Need to mention that
the same total distribution cost may have different influences on
customer time satisfaction, and the lowest point of the curve is the best
choice for balancing the relationship between distribution cost and time
satisfaction.
The values of Ref s also have influence on the distribution of the total
distribution cost. In the decreasing part, the total distribution cost in­
creases along with the increasing of the values of Ref s. Specifically, the
total distribution cost when Ref = 0.9 is larger than the others. Mean­
while, the greater the value of Ref is, the faster the decreasing of time
satisfaction will be. It means extra total distribution cost it is necessary
when customers become less tolerant for late delivery. In the increasing
part, on the contrary, the total distribution cost decreases along with the
increasing of the values of Ref s. Meanwhile, the smaller the value of Ref
is, the faster the decreasing of time satisfaction will be. It means just the
opposite to the situation of the decreasing part and when the customers
are not that sensitive for late delivery, the total distribution cost can be
reduced. Need to mention that these three curves gradually converge
with the time satisfaction expectation gradually increases to be 1. It
M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

Table 5
The influence of time satisfaction on results.
Satisfaction Ref = 0.9 Ref = 0.8 Ref = 0.75
expectation Best known value Average value Variance Best known value Average value Variance Best known value Average value Variance

1 1225 1266.1 10.87 1258.2 1266.6 4.32 1261.4 1267.6 4.26

0.96 1098.7 1122 12.65 1171.1 1181.8 9.25 1180.6 1220.4 6.03
0.92 1107.5 1156.1 18.86 1100.2 1125.4 15.59 1175.2 1187.8 7.55
0.88 1123.8 1165.1 25.78 1098.7 1134.4 16.54 1098.7 1127.6 14.11
0.84 1134.5 1179.1 24.08 1123.2 1157.4 17.3 1107.5 1130.9 14.75
0.8 1138.7 1181.3 25.14 1124.3 1174.1 23.38 1138.4 1161.5 14.77
0.75 1131.4 1188.2 28.33 1106 1175 26.37 1145 1171.3 20.4
0.7 1142.4 1192.7 30.89 1106 1190.2 31.35 1139.8 1186.9 20.65
0.6 1119 1218.9 31.07 1148.2 1201.9 27.53 1138.7 1191.9 30.14
0.5 1136.6 1231.1 39.02 1161.7 1226.9 32.03 1139.9 1216.2 41.35
0.3 1156.1 1262.8 38.54 1188.9 1254.1 34.04 1169.1 1250.6 45.64
0.1 1202.6 1288.6 42.17 1159.4 1286.1 52.03 1163.9 1283.5 40.71

indicates that the influence of Ref on the total distribution cost is
gradually weakening as the expectation increases.
5.3.2. The effect of quality satisfaction
The time satisfaction expectation is set to 0.1 and the reference point
of customer time satisfaction is set to 0.8. The experiments are con­
ducted under three different sensitivity coefficients (μ) of customer
quality satisfaction. Finally, the results are sorted out to obtain the curve
of the quality satisfaction expectation and the average total distribution
cost, as shown in Table 6 and Fig. 12 below.
Along with the increasing of the quality satisfaction expectations, the
total distribution cost shows a trend of flattening first, then decreasing
and finally increasing. The flattening trend shows that the lower values
of quality satisfaction expectations are easy to meet, and then the total
distribution cost is basically unchanged; and the reasons for the
decreasing part and the increasing part are similar to those as mentioned
in 5.3.1. Note that the lowest point of the curve is the best choice for
balancing the relationship between distribution cost and quality
satisfaction.
The values of μ s also have influence on the distribution of the total
distribution cost. In the decreasing part, the total distribution cost in­
creases along with the decreasing of the values of μ s. Specifically, the
total distribution cost when μ = 1.2 is smaller than the others. Mean­
while, the greater the value of μ is, the slower the decreasing of quality
satisfaction will be. It means the total distribution cost can be saved
when customers become more tolerant for poor products quality. In the
increasing part, on the contrary, the total distribution cost decreases
along with the decreasing of the values of μ s. Meanwhile, the smaller the
value of μ is, the slower the decreasing of quality satisfaction will be. It
means just the opposite to the situation of the decreasing part. Need to
mention that these three curves gradually converge with the quality
satisfaction expectation gradually increases to be 1, which is similar to
the curves in Fig. 11. However, the speed of converging is obviously
faster. It means that when the satisfaction expectation is large, different
μ s have a smaller impact on the total distribution cost than different Ref
s.
In the distribution of fresh products, it is not enough to consider only
customer time satisfaction. The addition of quality satisfaction makes it
comprehensive to describe the customers’ psychological behavior.
Especially when customers have high requirements for service, the role
of quality satisfaction is more prominent. When describing different
customer satisfaction functions, adding the reference point of time

Fig. 11. The influence of time satisfaction on the total distribution cost.

13
M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

Table 6
The influence of quality satisfaction on results.
Satisfaction μ = 1.2 μ = 1.0 μ = 0.8
expectation Best known value Average value Variance Best known value Average value Variance Best known value Average value Variance

1 1225.7 1233.7 7.24 1218.5 1234.6 8.48 1208.4 1233.9 10.04

0.99 1222.2 1222.8 9.04 1172.2 1197.3 12.72 1140.7 1184.7 24.65
0.98 1169.6 1198 20.41 1171.4 1189.6 16.28 1139.1 1172.4 18.44
0.97 1127.7 1179.5 21.62 1123.8 1181.5 29.03 1136.1 1164.9 15.39
0.96 1122.8 1175.1 29.88 1133.1 1167.4 18.54 1107.5 1161.6 29.53
0.95 1121.5 1163.1 30.39 1121.5 1164 23.59 1107.5 1181.8 38.72
0.94 1131.6 1162.7 16.28 1120.5 1196 35.3 1129.5 1201.6 46.17
0.93 1107.5 1181.7 37.41 1125.3 1199.2 30.96 1139.8 1225.3 41.01
0.92 1133.4 1185.4 40.17 1180 1217.9 29.92 1178.7 1260 35.6
0.9 1139.9 1221.7 46.2 1205.9 1249.7 32.34 1174.9 1281.9 56.71
0.7 1181.5 1282.1 40.64 1179 1286.8 59.77 1207.2 1287.9 45.29
0.5 1206.8 1284.5 38.86 1176.4 1289.4 46.56 1186.9 1292.9 48.17
0.3 1213.3 1294.9 45.12 1169 1294.1 52.35 1222.8 1297.3 31.51
0.1 1228.8 1302.2 38.18 1149.8 1304 53.48 1164.7 1305.2 50.19

Fig. 12. The influence of quality satisfaction on the total distribution cost.

satisfaction and the sensitivity coefficient of quality satisfaction can
distinguish the needs of different customer groups, and then better save
the total distribution cost.
5.3.3. The effect of customer satisfaction functions in model
Considering customer psychographic attributes, customers may
behave differently towards late delivery and poor products quality. The
experiments are carried out with five different combinations of customer
time satisfaction reference points (Ref) and quality satisfaction sensi­
tivity coefficients (μ), and each combination corresponds to a certain
type of customer. Among them, Ref = 0.75, μ = 1.2 represent the cus­
tomers with more tolerance for both late delivery and poor products
quality; Ref = 0.9, μ = 0.8 represent the customers with less tolerance
for both late delivery and poor products quality; Ref = 0.75, μ = 0.8
represent the customers with more tolerance for late delivery but less
tolerance for poor products quality; Ref = 0.9, μ = 1.2 represent the
customers with more tolerance for poor products quality but less toler­
ance for late delivery; Ref = 0.75, μ = 1.0 represents the customers who
show a medium tolerance for both late delivery and poor products
quality. To simplify the calculation, the time satisfaction and quality
satisfaction expectation are set to be the same value. Finally, the results
are sorted out to obtain the curve of different customer satisfaction ex­
pectations and the average total distribution cost, as shown in Table 7
and Fig. 13 below.
Along with the increasing of these two satisfaction expectations, the
total distribution cost shows a trend of decreasing first and then
increasing, which is similar to Fig. 11 and Fig. 12. It can be found that
the lowest point of the curve is the same as the lowest point in 5.3.1, and
in the decreasing part and the front part of the increasing part, the
relative positions of these curves are greatly affected by the Ref. Thereby
the influence of time satisfaction is greater than quality satisfaction
when the expectation is relatively small. When the expectation gradu­
ally increases to 1, the convergence trend and speed of these curves are
like those curves in Subsection 5.3.2, which shows that the influence of
quality satisfaction is greater than time satisfaction when the expecta­
tion is relatively large.
The experiment results demonstrate the necessity for considering
both of the time satisfaction and quality satisfaction. According to the
trend of total distribution cost, the delivery experience of customers may
change significantly when different distribution solutions are adopted
with the same total distribution cost.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, a VRPFPD-CS problem is proposed focusing on the
fresh products distribution when customer satisfaction is considered. To
quantitatively measure customer service experience, a time satisfaction
function and a quality satisfaction function are introduced, respectively.

14
M. Huang et al. Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022

Table 7
The effect of customer satisfaction on results.
Satisfaction Ref = 0.9μ = 1.2 Ref = 0.8μ = 1.0 Ref = 0.75μ = 0.8
expectation Best known value Average value Variance Best known value Average value Variance Best known value Average value Variance

1 1294 1369.5 34.19 1291.7 1356.8 39.45 1301.9 1373.3 26.66

0.98 1171.9 1182.2 6.05 1210.6 1258 19.2 1260.1 1265.7 4.57
0.96 1098.2 1123.9 23.71 1171.1 1185.3 9.6 1171.5 1192.7 7.13
0.94 1100.2 1142.7 16.93 1171.9 1183.5 7.96 1178.8 1186.5 7.56
0.92 1120.5 1148.8 16.54 1098.2 1121.6 19.54 1178.6 1181.6 9.81
0.9 1106 1161.6 27.55 1098.2 1129.4 18.76 1098.7 1134.6 20.46
0.88 1107.5 1164.4 22.14 1107.5 1131.3 20.91 1098.2 1126.4 14.74
0.86 1125.3 1176 30.5 1121.1 1150.1 17.83 1116.3 1142.9 14.8
0.84 1123.2 1184 30.79 1119 1160.6 19.17 1107.5 1143.4 26.77
0.8 1149.1 1185.1 21.86 1137.5 1172.8 20.4 1123.8 1159.1 21.42
0.7 1141.1 1202.7 29.38 1124.3 1183.7 26.12 1123.2 1170.7 26.05
0.5 1157.6 1242 41.01 1106 1230.4 45.25 1139.9 1205.3 37.22
0.3 1207.9 1273.9 38.95 1179.9 1260.4 42.34 1132.3 1256.2 54.26
0.1 1228.8 1298.8 50.35 1223.6 1306.1 48.38 1194.6 1301.7 60.61
Ref = 0.9μ = 0.8 Ref = 0.75μ = 1.2
1 1298.98 1365.23 37.7 1308.69 1373.77 30.23
0.98 1171.92 1183.71 6.56 1202.89 1258.27 17.85
0.96 1098.71 1124.75 13.32 1171.92 1180.96 7.87
0.94 1113.16 1152.37 14.44 1173.42 1183.65 6.59
0.92 1125.29 1158.24 17.74 1178.04 1189.69 6.37
0.9 1131.11 1171.43 24.16 1100.21 1131.68 17.51
0.88 1129.29 1172.25 24.23 1113.16 1133.21 12.16
0.86 1137.53 1175.17 25.2 1100.21 1143.06 18.91
0.84 1149.38 1184.76 19.32 1106.03 1133.4 16.63
0.8 1118.98 1177.61 32.51 1107.53 1154.8 14.76
0.7 1150.63 1199.49 23.08 1120.48 1169.78 18.17
0.5 1130.21 1240.64 41.95 1156.95 1225.42 43.21
0.3 1219.68 1279.66 42.83 1199.75 1269.04 33.1
0.1 1203.91 1301.89 55.32 1190.95 1311.63 57.43

Fig. 13. The influence of customer satisfaction on the total distribution cost.

Specifically, for the time satisfaction function, we update the traditional
way of depicting time satisfaction by considering the customer psy­
chological behavior as a kind of irrational behavior. Based on the
prospect theory, we depict the tolerance of customers for late delivery,
and define the time satisfaction function following a nonlinear
decreasing trend; and for the quality satisfaction function, we update the
traditional decay function of freshness with constant rate by considering
the customer psychological sensitivity coefficient according to the
degree of tolerance of customers for losing of freshness. Then, the
quality satisfaction function is formally defined following a nonlinear
decreasing trend.
A MINP model is proposed, among which these two customer satis­
faction functions are introduced as constraints. Due to its complexity, an
I-ALNS is designed, where a new strategy is introduced to jump out of
the local optimal solutions, and new removal and insertion operators
based on satisfaction functions are designed to reconstruct current

15
M. Huang et al.
solutions and extend the searching space. During the numerical exper­
iments, the effectiveness and the efficiency of the I-ALNS are demon­
strated, and the influences of customer psychological behavior on the
total distribution cost are analyzed. Based on the results we obtained in
our experiments, we suggest that enterprises should not only pay
attention to customer satisfaction in one aspect, especially when the
customer groups are complex. Meanwhile, the way of depicting the
customer satisfaction function is also significant in formulating suitable
solutions of fresh products distribution, which can utilize the distribu­
tion cost mostly.
In the problem of fresh products distribution considering customer
satisfaction, the traditional customer satisfaction functions are not
enough to describe the customer service experience. Especially when
customers have high requirements on delivery time and freshness of
products, it is beneficial to evaluate customer service experience by
constructing some relevant customer satisfaction functions from the
customers’ perspective. Meanwhile, during the process of constructing
the satisfaction functions, it should be considered that the relationship
between the customer psychological behavior and service experience is
not simple linear relation. Therefore, describing the customer irrational
psychological behavior based on the prospect theory or other methods
can distinguish the requirements of different customer groups, which is
convenient to adjust the distribution strategy in time and save the dis­
tribution cost. Finally, it is of great help in better balancing the total
distribution cost and customer service experience when considering the
customer satisfaction as constraints in the mathematical model.
The main purpose of this paper is to enrich the literature in the field
of fresh products distribution research, and to provide managemental
insights for decision makers in related fields. To enhance the adapt­
ability of the model to solve practical problems, it is reasonable to
discuss the impact of temperature control of refrigerated vehicles on
freshness of products and the impact of different types of temperature
control strategies with heterogeneous vehicles on distribution costs. To
further study the way of describing customer psychological behavior
considering more customer attributes is also crucial for studying the
fresh products distribution. Using reinforcement learning to address the
VRP considering stochastic aspects like customer random demand could
be a significant innovation.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Min Huang: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Re­
sources, Software, Writing – original draft. Minghao Liu: Data curation,
Methodology, Software, Writing – review & editing. Hanbin Kuang:
Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China
Grant No. 2021YFB3300900; the NSFC Key Supported Project of the
Major Research Plan Grant No. 92267206; the NSFC Grant No.
62032013; the NSFC Research Project Grant No.71601039.
16
Computers & Industrial Engineering 190 (2024) 110022
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