European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622

www.elsevier.com/locate/ejor

Scatter search for the vehicle routing problem

with time windows
Robert A. Russell *, Wen-Chyuan Chiang
Finance and Operations Management Department, The University of Tulsa, 600 South College Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA

Received 16 July 2003; accepted 24 June 2004

Available online 14 October 2004

Abstract

In this paper we use a scatter search framework to solve the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW).
Our objective is to achieve effective solutions and to investigate the effects of reference set design parameters pertaining
to size, quality and diversity. Both a common arc method and an optimization-based set covering model are used to
combine vehicle routing solutions. A reactive tabu search metaheuristic and a tabu search with an advanced recovery
feature, together with a set covering procedure are used for solution improvement. Our approach led to a robust solu-
tion method, generating solution quality that is competitive with the current best metaheuristics.

2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Scatter search; Tabu search; Metaheuristic; Set covering; Vehicle routing with time windows

1. Introduction solutions are usually generated from a heuristic

In this paper we use a scatter search framework
to solve the vehicle routing problem with time win-
dows (VRPTW). Our objective is to achieve effec-
tive solutions and to investigate the effects of
reference set design parameters pertaining to size,
quality and diversity. Scatter search is a metaheu-
ristic approach that combines solutions from a ref-
erence set to achieve improved solutions. The
reference set is usually generated with quality
and diversity in mind. With quality, the initial
*
Corresponding author.
and may or may not be improved, but the best
ÔbÕ solutions are collected. With diversity, the solu-
tions may be generated from different heuristics to
explore different regions of the solution space. The
main idea behind scatter search is that the com-
bined solutions will produce a synergistic effect
and capture information not contained in the indi-
vidual solutions. In implementation, auxiliary heu-
ristic solution methods will be used to evaluate the
combinations and generate new solutions. In es-
sence, the newly combined solutions will explore
different parts of the solution space where better
objective function values may possibly be found.

0377-2217/$ - see front matter
2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2004.08.018
 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622
Scatter search has been applied successfully to
varieties of problem types including quadratic
assignment (Cung et al., 1997), flow shop schedul-
ing (Jain and Meeran, 2002), linear ordering
(Campos et al., 1999), bipartite drawing (Laguna
and Marti, 1999), graph coloring (Hamiez and
Hao, 2002), and diverse mixed integer solution
generating (Glover et al., 1999). One most recent
paper worthy of attention is Campos et al. (in
press) which successfully generalized a scatter
search framework to solve context-independent
permutation problems, including the band reduc-
tion problem, the linear ordering problem, the
traveling salesman problem, and the single ma-
chine sequencing problem. In this framework, ten
different types of solution combinations are used.
The scatter search with tabu search improvement
yields higher solution quality than commercially
available packages. Readers are advised to refer
to Glover et al. (2002) and Glover (1998) for a
complete coverage of rich literature in the applica-
tions of scatter search.
Previous research in scatter search for vehicle
routing related problems has been conducted
by Rochat and Taillard (1995), Rego (2000),
Corberan et al. (2002), and Greistorfer (2003).
Rochat and Taillard called their approach a
probabilistic local search although it employed
many of the strategies of scatter search. They gen-
erated a pool of initial solutions and then proba-
bilistically chose tours from the pool weighted by
their solution quality. Partial tours were created
and a local search procedure was used to con-
struct full tours leading to new and possibly bet-
ter solutions for the ‘‘reference set’’. Rochat and
Taillard also used set partitioning as a post opti-
mization technique to combine tours contained in
the reference set. They applied their search proce-
dure to both the VRP and VRPTW and obtained
very good results including best known solutions
a few which are still best known currently. Rego
applied scatter search to the standard vehicle
routing problem (VRP) and combined solutions
from the reference set through a common arc
mechanism. He was able to achieve reasonable re-
sults but found that his scatter search solution
quality was not as capable as the best known ap-
proaches including his subpath ejection method
607
(Rego, 1998). Corberan et al. (2002) developed
an efficient scatter search procedure to solve a
multiple objective school bus routing problem
in a rural area. The search solution procedure
follows the framework of scatter search—con-
structing, improving and combining solutions.
Experimental testing with real data is used. Grei-
storfer (2003) applied a tabu search procedure
that makes use of the scatter search paradigm
for solving a capacitated arc routing problem in
which the objective is to determine a least-cost
schedule of routes. A fleet of vehicles located at
a single depot is used to service the route de-
mands. The computational results are comparable
to other arc routing heuristics.
Within the scatter search framework we employ
metaheuristic methods to guide the search for
effective solutions. The first improvement method
is a short-term reactive tabu search method that
has been developed for the VRPTW. The search
is short term in that the number of iterations is
limited to 10 iterations per customer for a maxi-
mum of 500 iterations. The reactive tabu search
procedure utilizes neighborhood moves, and inten-
sification, and diversification strategies to modify
routes and escape local optima. This method is
context dependent in that it is designed specifically
for vehicle routing type problems. We also employ
an enhanced version of tabu search utilizing an ad-
vanced recovery strategy that samples from a pool
of elite solutions. The advanced recovery tabu
search is employed only at the end of the improve-
ment process since it is more computationally
intensive than the reactive tabu search.
The third improvement technique is an integer
programming application of set covering. This
optimization-based method is global in that it
operates on the set of all routes in the set of en-
hanced or improved solutions to create one elite
solution. It is a ‘‘macro’’ method that operates
on whole routes and thus differs from the ‘‘micro’’
node and edge exchange types of neighborhood
moves that occur between routes. Set covering is
a relaxation of the set partitioning method and of-
fers one advantage; nodes or customers covered
more than once can be eliminated from one or
more routes leading to an improved solution rela-
tive to set partitioning. Set covering is context
608 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622
independent to the extent that it can be applied to
a variety of scheduling problems.
In this study we conduct experiments examining
the effects of reference set size and its effect on
solution quality and computational requirements.
We also explore two different methods of combin-
ing vehicle routing solutions. The primary ap-
proach uses arcs or edges that are common to a
subset of solutions. A second approach is to com-
bine sets of routes using the set covering model.
We end the experiments with a discussion of the
effectiveness of the scatter search implementation
in solving the VRPTW.
2. The vehicle routing problem with time
The vehicle routing problem with time win-
dows is a logistics and distribution management
problem that has many real-world applications.
Typical applications of the VRPTW include bank
deliveries, postal deliveries, industrial refuse col-
lection, national franchise restaurant deliveries,
gas and petroleum deliveries, school bus routing,
and security patrol services. The VRPTW has
been extensively studied by academics due to its
challenging complexity and strategic cost impact.
The recent emergence of supply chain manage-
ment also renews interest in the study of the
VRPTW.
The VRPTW can be described briefly as fol-
lows. Let G = (C, A) be a directed graph where
C = {c0, c1, . . ., cn} is a customer vertex set, and
A = {(ci, cj):i 5 j} is an arc set. Vertex c0 denotes
a depot at which m identical vehicles are based,
and the remaining vertices of C represent customer
locations. Each arc (ci, cj) has an associated non-
negative distance dij and a nonnegative travel time
tij. The VRPTW consists of designing a set of least
cost vehicle routes such that:
(a) Every route starts and ends at the depot.
(b) Every customer of C (excluding the depot) is
visited exactly once by exactly one vehicle.
(c) The total demand of any vehicle route does not
exceed the vehicle capacity.
(d) Each customer ci has a required service time
si.
(e) Each customer ci has a service time window
(ei, li) where ei is the earliest time that service
can begin and li is the latest time that service
can begin.
Arrival at customer ci before time ei requires a wait
time of wi and service after time li is infeasible.
Additionally, the total duration of any route (tra-
vel plus service time) can not exceed a preset route
duration bound.
The VRPTW has multiple objectives in that the
goal is to minimize not only the number of vehicles
required, but also the total travel distance incurred
by the fleet of vehicles. Although the priorities can
vary by application, i.e. sometimes total travel
time is also a criterion, in this paper we assume pri-
orities in order of vehicles required and total dis-
tance, respectively.
Both optimization and heuristic approaches
have been developed for the VRPTW. Among
the optimization approaches, Desrochers et al.
(1992) have extended the maximum problem size
that can be solved optimally. The problems con-
sist of 100 customers. Fisher et al. (1997) have
developed a k-tree relaxation approach that gen-
erated optimal solutions to two of the Solomon
test problems (Solomon, 1987). Kohl and Madsen
(1997) used a Lagrangian relaxation of the con-
straint set requiring that each customer must be
serviced. The master problem consists of finding
the optimal Lagrangian multipliers and the sub-
problem is a shortest path problem with time
windows and capacity constraints. Because of
NP-completeness, the majority of research has fo-
cused on the development of heuristics. Solo-
monÕs (1987) construction heuristics represent
the seminal work on heuristics for the VRPTW.
Recently, researchers have focused their attention
on the design of efficient metaheuristics. Their ap-
proaches include simulated annealing, tabu
search, evolutionary methods, and genetic algo-
rithms. Rochat and Taillard (1995) used a prob-
abilistic local search which used scatter-search
type strategies to solve the VRPTW. Potvin
et al. (1996) employed an efficient tabu search
metaheuristic to find solutions for the VRPTW.
Potvin and Bengio (1996) used a genetic search
approach to solve the VRPTW. Chiang and
 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622
Russell (1997) designed a reactive tabu search to
solve the VRPTW. Taillard et al. (1997) used
tabu search to solve both the vehicle routing
problem with soft time windows and the
VRPTW; their approach generated several new
best known solutions. Cordeau et al. (2001) pre-
sented a unified tabu search for both the periodic
and the multi-depot vehicle routing problems
with time windows. Recently, Gehring and Hom-
berger (2002) used parallelization of a two-phase
evolutionary metaheuristic to achieve robust solu-
tions for the VRPTW.
3. Scatter search for the VRPTW
In addition to the exploration of strategic possi-
bilities for the purpose of combining solutions,
scatter search offers a general framework for
implementation as follows.
(1) A diversification generator: to generate a col-
lection of diverse trial solutions using an arbi-
trary trial solution (or seed solution) as an
input.
(2) An improvement method: to transform a trial
solution into one or more enhanced trial
solutions.
(3) A reference set update method: to build and
maintain a reference set consisting of the b best
solutions found.
(4) A subset generation method: to operate on the
reference set, to produce a subset of its solu-
tions as a basis for creating combined
solutions.
(5) A solution combination method: to transform
a given subset of solutions produced by the
subset generation method into one or more
combined solution vectors.
Laguna (2002), Laguna and Marti (2002a,b),
Glover et al. (2000a,b), and Glover (1999) provide
detailed descriptions and an implementation
framework of the scatter search approach. In more
recent work, Marti et al. (2003) provided the main
principles and ideas of scatter search.
The VRPTW is a highly constrained problem.
Time window constraints make the problem diffi-
609
cult to solve. Quality solutions require a meticu-
lous design of the heuristics. We adapt the
strategic framework of the scatter search to the
VRPTW. Our scatter search implementation pro-
cedure is summarized in Fig. 1.
The initial reference set is composed of solu-
tions generated using two different construction
heuristics to generate the initial solution. In one
approach, a tabu search route improvement proce-
dure (Chiang and Russell, 1997) is embedded with-
in the parallel construction process to improve
solution quality. To increase the diversity of the
solution pool in the reference set, SolomonÕs
sequential insertion heuristic (Solomon, 1987) is
also used to generate different solutions. Parallel
route construction differs from sequential route
construction in that all m emerging routes are con-
structed simultaneously rather than one at a time.
The reference set consists of a total of b1 best solu-
tions from the parallel construction heuristic and
b2 best solutions from SolomonÕs sequential inser-
tion heuristic.
To combine solutions from the initial reference
set, common arcs are generated and put in sepa-
rate clusters. From there, N partial solutions are
generated from different types of combinations.
Some of the partial solutions might not be feasible.
For example, a node (a customer) may have sev-
eral incoming or outgoing arcs. A restoring proce-
dure is used to repair the infeasible partial
solutions. A parallel construction approach is then
used to connect the remaining nodes and tabu
search is called periodically to improve the par-
tially constructed routes.
The scatter search continues to update the refer-
ence set. The new reference set is composed of
(b1 + b2)/2 best solutions from the original refer-
ence set, [(b1 + b2)/2]
1 best solutions out of N
generated solutions, and 1 new solution from the
set covering approach for the N generated solu-
tions. For the updated reference set, the same prin-
ciple is used again. Quality and diversity are the
two dominant factors in the reference set design.
The [(b1 + b2)/2]
1 best solutions out of N gener-
ated solutions added to the reference set should
possess the property of low percentage of arcs
common to the solutions in the reference to
achieve diversity. At the same time, those solutions
610 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622
Fig. 1. Scatter search procedure for the VRPTW.
should have the least number of routes and dis-
tance to achieve quality.
The scatter search procedure stops when a ter-
mination criterion—the maximum number of iter-
ations, MaxIter, is reached, the reference set does
not change, or improvement does not warrant fur-
ther iterations.
We discuss below critical components of our
scatter search procedure.
3.1. Combining solutions
Scatter search operates on a pool of solutions in
the reference set. New solutions are generated by
applying a solution combination method.
3.1.1. Arc combination approach
As we mentioned in the introduction, the solu-
tion of the VRPTW can be represented as a net-
work G = (C, A) where C = {c0, c1, . . ., cn} is a
customer vertex set, and A = {(ci, cj): i 5 j} is an
arc set. Each arc (ci, cj) has an associated nonneg-
ative distance dij and a nonnegative travel time
tij. To combine solutions, we adopt a common
arc strategy. We define a common arc as an arc
that is shared by different solutions. We assume
that arcs that appear with a high frequency in elite
solutions will have a higher probability of being in
an optimal solution. Therefore, we want to create
new solutions whose nucleus consists of arcs com-
mon to subsets of the reference set.
To generate common arcs, we operate on
our reference solution set RefSet = {s1, s2, s3, . . .,
sjRefSetj}. The solutions in RefSet are sorted
according to their objective function values (where
the best overall solution is first on the list). We
follow GloverÕs approach (Glover, 1999) and gen-
erate common arc subsets for the following com-
binations:
• 2-Solution combination subsets: {s1, s2}, {s1,
s3}, . . ., {s2, s3}, . . ., {sjRefSetj
1, sjRefSetj}.
• 3-Solution combination subsets: {s1, s2, sb}, {s1,
s3, sb}, . . ., {s2, s3, sb}, . . ., {sjRefSetj
1, sjRefSetj, sb},
where sb is the best solution (other than the first
two solutions). That is, 3-element subsets are
derived from the 2-element subsets by augment-
ing each 2-element subset to include the best
solution (as measured by the objective value)
not in this subset.
 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622
• 4-solution combination subsets: {s1, s2, sb1, sb2},
{s1, s3, sb1, sb2}, . . ., {s2, s3,sb1, sb2}, . . ., {sjRefSetj
1,
sjRefSetj, sb1, sb2}, where sb1, sb2 are the two best
solutions (other than the first two). That is, 4-
element subsets are derived from the 3-element
subsets by augmenting each 3-element subset
to include the best solution (as measured by
the objective value) not in this subset.
• The subsets consisting of the best i elements (as
measured by the objective value), for i = 5 to
jRefSetj.
The total number

of subset
 solutions generated
jRefSetj
is equal to 3  þ jRefSetj
4 . For a
2 window feasibility is checked and nodes with time
small reference set of size 5, not all of the subsets
can be unique. Of the 31 subsets generated, only
26 could be unique. For size 10 and larger refer-
ence sets, unique subsets can be achieved. Once
solution subsets are generated, we compute arc
weights for arcs to be considered for use in the
combined solutions. Consider the arc combination
set C(S) and the calculation of arc weight Wrs . De-
fine solution Si as a solution in the arc combina-
tion set C(S), i.e., Si 2 C(S). By using distance as
a surrogate objective function, we can calculate a
weight threshold value Wrs.
P P
S j 2CðSÞ k;l2S j d kl
v0i ¼ P ; solution S i 2 CðSÞ:
k;l2S i d kl
v0i
vi ¼ P 0
;
S j 2CðSÞ vj
vi ¼ relative value of solution S i :
X combination approach. Set partitioning has been
W rs ¼ ars vi ;
S i 2CðSÞ
 tion applications. Bramel and Simchi-Levi (1997)
1 if arc ðr; sÞ 2 S i ;
where ars ¼ : ð3Þ
0 otherwise:
Here, Eqs. (1) and (2) calculate the relative value
of solution i using the total distance as the evalu-
ation criterion. The lower the total distance solu-
tion i has, the higher the relative value it will
get. Eq. (3) calculates the weight value, or merit,
of a common arc (r, s) as it appears in different
611
solutions. An elite common arc list is created by
adding only arcs which are of sufficient merit.
Given a weight threshold value a, common arcs
are placed in the elite common arc list if Wrs P a.
In the course of experimentation, we found that a
threshold values of 1.0, 0.85, 0.85, and 0.80
worked well for the 2-solution, 3-solution, 4-solu-
tion, and best-i solution combination subsets,
respectively. The arcs in the common arc list com-
prise a set of separated groups which we call
‘‘clusters’’ or seed routes.
To have a feasible solution, the arcs with dupli-
cate heads and tails in the common arc list need to
be modified in order to eliminate subtours. Time
window violations are truncated. The procedure is
a feasibility restoration heuristic. Given the list of
common arcs grouped in clusters, we try to deter-
mine the feasible chains or subtours among those
arcs.
The heuristic procedure is listed in Fig. 2.
The cluster generation and feasibility restora-
tion can be illustrated in Fig. 3. The light colored
arcs represent arcs that have been eliminated to re-
store feasibility. The dark nodes and arcs represent
restored feasible arc-node clusters that are the nu-
cleus of partially completed routes. The white
nodes represent nodes that are to be added to
routes during the solution improvement process.
ð1Þ Parallel construction follows to link unassigned
nodes and tabu search is used to improve the
emerging routes.
3.1.2. Route combination approach
ð2Þ In addition to the common arc subset gener-
ation approach, we also examine a global route
used in a variety of vehicle routing and distribu-
examined the effectiveness of set partitioning in
solving vehicle routing problems with time win-
dows. They observed that for any distribution
of service times, time windows, customer loads,
and locations, the relative gap between frac-
tional and integer solutions of the set partition-
ing problem becomes arbitrarily small as the
number of customers increases. Ronen (2000)
used elastic set partitioning to generate solutions
612 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622

Fig. 2. Restoring feasibility: cluster generation procedure.

X
within 1% of optimality for scheduling charter min zr x r
aircraft. r2R
Set covering is an optimization–based approach s:t:
that is capable of not only handling nonlinear and X
fixed route costs, but is also capable of generating pir xr P 1; i 2 N n fdg; ð4Þ
optimal solutions provided the problem size is not r2R
X
too large. In order to guarantee an optimal solu- xr 6 m; ð5Þ
tion, all feasible routes must be considered implic- r2R
itly or explicitly in the integer programming
formulation. To generate an approximate or heu- xr 2 f0; 1g; r 2 R;
ristic solution, a subset of all possible routes can pir 2 f0; 1g; i 2 N n fdg; r 2 R;
be generated in order to reduce problem size and
computation time. where
The route combination approach uses the (
set covering algorithm to select the minimum 1 customer i is visited by route r;
cost solution from all among all the routes in the pir ¼
0 otherwise;
set of improved trial solutions. To reduce the
size of the resulting integer program, duplicate zr the total cost of route r,
routes are eliminated by sorting and scanning m the specified number of vehicle routes,
the set of all routes in the set of improved R the set of all routes generated by subset
solutions. improvements,
The set covering formulation for the VRPTW is N the depot and customers set,
as follows: d the depot,
 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622
Define an arc as a node pair: aij (node i, node j)
aij a jk
Customer
Depot
Fig. 3. Restoring feasibility: an illustration of cluster genera-
tion algorithm.

1 route is selected for the final solution;
xr ¼
0 otherwise:
The first constraint set (4), represents ‘‘cover-
ing’’ type constraints that ensure that each cus-
tomer is served by at least one vehicle. The
second constraint set (5), ensures that the total
number of vehicle routes used does not exceed
the maximum number of vehicles available.
3.2. Improvement heuristics
We use two versions of tabu search metaheuris-
tics to improve solutions. A short-term reactive
tabu search approach (Chiang and Russell, 1997)
is used in the improvement of the initial reference
set of solutions generated by the parallel construc-
tion method (Chiang and Russell, 1997) and Solo-
613
monÕs sequential insertion heuristic (Solomon,
1987). The same tabu search approach is used
again in the improvement of solutions generated
by the arc combination method. The tabu search
with advanced recovery (Chiang and Russell, in
press) is used to improve the unique solution gen-
erated by the set covering optimization method.
The tabu search metaheuristics employ a lexico-
graphic objective function in which the most
important objective is the number of vehicle routes
required. The secondary objective is a convex com-
bination of total travel distance and time. Both the
reactive tabu search and tabu search with ad-
vanced recovery use the same neighborhood and
tabu data structure which is defined as follows.
The neighborhood structure is defined by the k-
interchange moves attributed to Osman (1993) and
Osman and Salhi (1996). The k-interchange moves
consist of three possible node exchanges: insert,
delete, and swap. The format of the insert move-
ment is insert (r1, r2, i, j). It moves a node from
route r1 position i to route r2 position j. We label
the insert movement as a (0, 1) movement. The for-
mat of the delete movement is delete (r1, r2, i, j). It
moves the node from route r2 position j to route
r1 position i. The delete movement is also called
a (1, 0) movement. The third movement is an ex-
change (swap) movement. The format of the ex-
change movement is exchange (r1, r2, i, j). It
exchanges the node in route r1 position i and route
r2 position j. The exchange movement is labeled as
a (1, 1) movement. Not every move is feasible. The
feasibility for the movements of nodes is dictated
by time windows and the maximum allowable tra-
vel time duration of a route. The neighborhood
structure was effective in solving vehicle routing
problems with time windows.
The tabu data structure can be illustrated with
the neighborhood structure. A node is said to have
tabu status with respect to a route if it cannot be
switched back to that route. Define TABU(u, r),
"u 2 {1, . . ., jCj}, "r 2 {1, . . . , jRj}, where jCj is
the cardinality of the set of nodes and jRj is the
cardinality of the set of routes. TABU(u, r) records
the tabu status of node u in route r, after being
moved to another route, i.e., if the TABU(u, r) = x,
then node u cannot return to route r until iteration
x finishes. Let t be a tabu list size. If node u
614 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622
switches from route r to r 0 at the current iteration,
then TABU(u, r) is updated as follows:
TABU ðu; rÞ ¼ iter þ t where iter is the
current iteration number;
Node u is tabu with respect to route r
if TABU ðu; rÞ > iter:
Hence, for k-interchange operators (0, 1) or
(1, 0), if u switches from r1 to r2 and if
TABU(u, r2) > iter, then the move is tabu; other-
wise, it is not tabu. For operator (1, 1), if node u
in route r1 is exchanged with node u 0 in route r2
and if TABU(u, r2) > iter or TABU(u 0 , r1) > iter,
then the move is tabu; otherwise, it is not. When
a node is tabu, it cannot return to its original route
in the next Tabu List Size iterations if it switches
from that route to another unless the aspiration
criterion is satisfied. The aspiration criterion is as
follows: Tabu status can be overridden if the
switch of a node in Tabu can result in a new solu-
tion with cost less than the best solution found so
far.
The tabu search with advanced recovery (Chi-
ang and Russell, in press) is applied after a pool
of solutions has been generated through tabu
search. Our approach is a variation of the ad-
vanced recovery approach proposed by Xu et al.
(1999). The advanced recovery algorithm records
the 3 best solutions obtained from the tabu search
algorithm, then each of the 3 best solutions is used
to be the initial solution to start another iteration
of tabu search. The 9 best solutions generated
from the original 3 best solutions are stored in a
temporary pool. After the original 3 best solutions
are recovered, the 9 best solutions stored in the
temporary pool are compared to the original 3
solutions to get the 3 best ones among the 12.
The comparison yields the 3 best solutions for
the next iteration. After a given number of itera-
tions, the algorithm stops.
4. Computational experiments
In this section we analyze our scatter search
implementation for solving the VRPTW. We also
examine the effects of reference set size on solution
quality and the tradeoffs between quality and
diversity in reference set design.
The test data consists of the well known 56
Solomon VRPTW test problems. Each of these
problems has 100 customers and the travel time
between nodes is equal to the Euclidean distance.
The 56 test problems are grouped into six problem
types. The geographical distribution of customers
in problem sets R1 and R2 is randomly generated
according to a uniform distribution. Problem sets
C1 and C2 have clustered routes based on solu-
tions to a VRP. Sets RC1 and RC2 are semi-clus-
tered with a mix of randomly distributed and
clustered customers. Sets R1, C1, and RC1 have
a shorter scheduling horizon and allow fewer cus-
tomers per route. Problem sets R2, C2, and RC2
have a longer scheduling horizon and allow a lar-
ger number of customers per route. A more com-
plete description of the test problems can be
found in Solomon (1987).
Reference set size is an important factor in both
the computational requirements and solution qual-
ity of a scatter search implementation. Size 20 has
been used in previous adaptations of scatter search.
In Table 1, we show the solution quality and compu-
tation time required to solve problems in the R1 and
RC1 problem sets.  set of size jRefSetj

A reference
jRefSetj
will generate 3  þ jRefSetj
4 subset
2
problems to be solved. Thus, reference sets of size
20, 10, and 5 will generate 586, 141, and 31 sub-
problems, respectively.
The results achieved from the three reference set
sizes are similar and this is not surprising given
that the same tabu search metaheuristic was used
to obtain solutions from the subproblems. How-
ever, size does facilitate slightly better results.
Two fewer vehicles were required using the size
20 reference set relative to the size 5 reference set
and one less than when using the size 10. The total
distance was less for size 10, however, some prob-
lems require more distance traveled in order to
achieve fewer vehicles routes. The computational
requirements of a reference set of size 20 are signif-
icantly greater, but because of the superior results
and the larger solution pool that is generated, we
chose size 20 as the basis of the scatter search
implementation.
 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622 615

Table 1
Initial search with different size reference sets
Problem Reference set size 20 Reference set size 10 Reference set size 5
Vehicles Distance Vehicles Distance Vehicles Distance
R101 19 1651.01 19 1652.17 19 1652.17
R102 17 1492.16 17 1487.47 17 1486.65
R103 13 1306.5 13 1307.63 13 1316.38
R104 10 992.3 10 991.1 10 990.21
R105 14 1379.9 14 1384.03 14 1379.26
R106 12 1257.88 12 1259.91 13 1239.98
R107 10 1128.45 10 1122.67 10 1115.53
R108 9 1005.3 9 978.55 9 976.24
R109 12 1165.71 12 1167.24 12 1158.34
R110 11 1092.36 11 1095.84 11 1104.29
R111 10 1106.45 10 1120.26 10 1118.48
R112 10 975.04 10 971.35 10 969.74
RC101 14 1769.34 15 1633.3 15 1641.33
RC102 13 1485.32 13 1485.7 13 1524.64
RC103 11 1266.3 11 1281.53 11 1293.54
RC104 10 1138.02 10 1145.6 10 1167.97
RC105 13 1650.12 13 1648.43 14 1549.46
RC106 12 1392.6 12 1396.2 12 1414.49
RC107 11 1237.31 11 1245.7 11 1257.32
RC108 10 1149.56 10 1149.56 10 1181.43
Total 241 25642 242 25524 243 25654
CPU timea 3063 778 163
a
Minutes Athlon 2.25 GHz processor.

Updating the reference set requires that special
attention be given to solution diversity as well as
quality. Simply selecting the best 20 solutions from
the union of the existing reference set and the 586
generated solutions yielded a reference set that was
comprised of too many similar solutions. We
incorporated a design strategy based on the per-
centage of arcs in a solution that were already in
the existing reference set. The update strategy
was based on selecting new solutions that had a
lower percentage of common arcs but that were
constrained to be within 2–3% of the best solution
objective value in the reference set. The results in
Table 1 used the full set of 586, 141, and 31 subsets
of subproblems, respectively. The tabu search
improvement heuristic was long term in that it
used a maximum of 1000 iterations.
4.1. Subset reduction
Given both the large subproblem set size of 586
and the computational time requirements of tabu
search, we devised three strategies for reducing
the computational requirements of the scatter
search implementation. First, the tabu search
improvement metaheuristic was modified to have
only 10 iterations per customer or a maximum of
500 iterations. Second, the set of 586 subproblems
is comprised of a significant number of duplicate
subproblems. We implemented a reduction policy
that allows only one subproblem for a given num-
ber of initial clusters and associated number of
customers. This policy eliminates some non-redun-
dant subproblems but is necessary to facilitate
computational tractability. Thirdly, we observed
that subproblems having too few or too many
clusters generally led to inferior solutions. If v
equals the target number of vehicle routes, then
the subproblems having initial routes outside the
range of [v
1, v + 5] were eliminated. Far fewer
than 586 subproblems were improved in the fol-
lowing experiments reported in Tables 2–6. The
number of subproblems ranged from 35 to 274
out of a possible 586. Subset reduction has little
616 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622

Table 2
Scatter search for R1, RC1, R2, and RC2: iteration 1
Problem Tabu improvement Set covering Advance recovery
NR Distance CPU time NR Distance CPU time NR Distance CPU time
R101 19 1650.80 11.81 19 1650.80 0.00 19 1650.80 0.18
R102 17 1486.12 15.69 17 1486.12 0.00 17 1486.12 0.58
R103 13 1297.05 22.85 13 1294.67 0.02 13 1294.67 0.22
R104 10 993.78 48.84 10 984.69 0.19 10 984.69 0.18
R105 14 1377.80 20.07 14 1377.11 0.08 14 1377.11 0.16
R106 12 1254.27 19.73 12 1253.05 0.05 12 1253.05 0.18
R107 10 1121.30 19.97 10 1112.42 0.02 10 1106.15 0.22
R108 9 969.67 44.67 9 969.67 1.33 9 969.67 0.20
R109 11 1215.12 25.72 11 1194.73 0.24 11 1194.73 0.15
R110 11 1103.38 32.33 10 1145.68 6.28 10 1145.68 0.19
R111 10 1123.43 25.60 10 1103.68 0.07 10 1103.68 0.17
R112 10 979.96 27.56 10 968.21 1.75 10 968.21 0.15
RC101 14 1743.96 23.85 14 1695.94 0.10 14 1695.94 0.15
RC102 12 1595.34 26.75 12 1558.15 1.21 12 1558.15 0.18
RC103 11 1269.38 31.97 11 1263.63 0.12 11 1263.63 0.21
RC104 10 1140.08 39.08 10 1137.54 0.32 10 1137.54 0.13
RC105 13 1641.06 27.30 13 1629.44 0.03 13 1629.44 0.13
RC106 12 1394.50 22.71 11 1494.14 1.11 11 1494.14 0.17
RC107 11 1234.49 31.43 11 1230.54 0.11 11 1230.54 0.12
RC108 10 1160.84 40.34 10 1152.76 0.45 10 1152.76 0.12
R201 4 1279.37 10.27 4 1274.22 0.06 4 1258.64 0.18
R202 3 1262.74 17.88 3 1262.74 0.02 3 1240.47 0.21
R203 3 959.71 11.86 3 959.71 0.01 3 955.87 0.30
R204 2 857.52 23.41 2 857.52 0.01 2 856.35 0.36
R205 3 1087.37 2.79 3 1087.37 0.00 3 1043.90 0.20
R206 3 949.02 21.74 3 949.02 0.01 3 947.32 0.32
R207 2 928.15 21.68 2 928.15 0.01 2 928.15 0.21
R208 2 753.37 15.87 2 753.37 0.00 2 742.32 0.63
R209 3 951.41 11.18 3 951.41 0.00 3 945.71 0.30
R210 3 1005.90 6.82 3 1005.9 0.00 3 998.69 0.31
R211 3 836.42 14.04 3 836.42 0.03 3 799.20 0.44
RC201 4 1473.95 2.99 4 1473.95 0.01 4 1447.70 0.17
RC202 3 1492.59 5.07 3 1492.59 0.00 3 1467.43 0.18
RC203 3 1131.25 6.65 3 1131.25 0.00 3 1082.37 0.29
RC204 3 824.51 17.77 3 824.51 0.00 3 820.89 0.41
RC205 4 1355.70 4.49 4 1355.70 0.00 4 1355.70 0.16
RC206 3 1179.37 8.75 3 1179.37 0.00 3 1178.27 0.21
RC207 3 1232.21 9.83 3 1232.21 0.00 3 1164.34 0.28
RC208 3 887.89 28.01 3 887.89 0.01 3 881.34 0.43

effect on solution quality while significantly reduc-
ing computation time.
Tables 2 and 3 show the results of the first iter-
ation of the scatter search implementation. Table 2
reports the results pertaining to the R1, RC1, R2,
and RC2 problem sets while Table 3 shows the re-
sults for problem sets C1 and C2. The details show
the solution properties of the initial search and two
subsequent improvement methods. The initial
search columns show the number of vehicle routes
required and total distance of the best solution
found among all subproblems generated. The
CPU time is the total for all subproblems im-
proved. The set covering columns show the result
from combining all solutions into one ‘‘elite’’ solu-
tion. Recent advances in integer programming
solvers such as CPLEX 8.1 enable relatively large
0–1 models with up to 16,000 variables and 101
 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622 617

Table 3
Scatter search for C1, and C2: iteration 1
Problem Tabu improvement Set covering Advance recovery
NR Distance CPU time NR Distance CPU time NR Distance CPU time
C101 10 828.94 13.78 10 828.94 0.00 10 828.94 0.10
C102 10 828.94 8.18 10 828.94 0.15 10 828.94 0.12
C103 10 824.78 6.32 10 824.78 0.64 10 824.78 0.16
C104 10 828.94 61.38 10 828.94 0.98 10 828.94 0.23
C105 10 828.94 17.70 10 828.94 0.00 10 828.94 0.11
C106 10 828.94 27.01 10 828.94 0.00 10 828.94 0.11
C107 10 828.94 18.13 10 828.94 0.00 10 828.94 0.13
C108 10 828.94 6.94 10 828.94 0.10 10 828.94 0.14
C109 10 828.94 4.91 10 828.94 0.31 10 828.94 0.21
C201 3 591.56 17.56 10 591.56 0.00 10 591.56 0.11
C202 3 591.56 28.16 3 591.56 0.05 3 591.56 0.19
C203 3 591.17 64.91 3 591.17 0.05 3 591.17 0.31
C204 3 599.68 13.74 3 590.60 0.75 3 590.60 0.23
C205 3 588.88 30.56 3 588.88 0.00 3 588.88 0.14
C206 3 588.49 4.49 3 588.49 0.00 3 588.49 0.18
C207 3 588.49 6.62 3 588.49 0.43 3 588.49 0.18
C208 3 588.32 25.28 3 588.32 0.54 3 588.32 0.27

constraints to be solved in minutes if not seconds.
In 2 of the 56 test problems, set covering was able
to reduce the number of vehicles required relative
to the initial search.
The advanced recovery columns show the re-
sults of applying tabu search with advanced recov-
ery to the single solution obtained by set covering.
The computing times are small because the start-
ing solution is an elite solution and the maximum
iterations of the tabu search is limited to 1000. Ad-
vanced recovery did not eliminate any vehicle
routes but did achieve distance reduction in some
instances. For problems such as R205, the
improvement was significant.
Tables 4 and 5 show the results obtained in the
second iteration of scatter search. The second
search columns show the details of the solution ob-
tained from the updated reference set. In Table 4,
there were 22 instances out of 39 in which the solu-
tion improved relative to the initial search. In Table
5 there were no improvements, however, in the first
iteration, the scatter search had already found the
best known heuristic solutions. The solution pool
used for set covering includes the subproblem solu-
tions from both iterations plus the best solution
found in iteration 1. At the completion of iteration
2, several best known solutions had been achieved.
Table 6 shows the solution quality generated by
our scatter search implementation, Rochat and
TaillardÕs approach, and the best known results
(optimal and heuristic) from many researchers
as reported on SolomonÕs website, http://web.
cba.neu.edu/~msolomon/problems.htm. The total
accumulated CPU time for the scatter search solu-
tion process is shown in Table 6.
Table 6 also shows the gap between the best
known solution and our scatter search. The gap
is reported as the percentage increase in the
objective function relative to the best known.
For the 4 problems in which scatter search did
not find the minimum number of vehicles, the
gap is not reported. A zero gap indicates the
attainment of a best known solution. The average
gap is only 1.060% with a maximum gap of
5.93%. These percentages indicate that scatter
search provides a framework for a robust solu-
tion methodology for the VRPTW. In Table 6
we include the results obtained by Rochat and
Taillard (1995) since their work most closely
resembles a scatter search implementation for
the VRPTW. In their probabilistic local search,
they employ a pool of solutions similar to a
reference set and apply local search to improve
solutions. They also ‘‘combine’’ solutions by
618 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622

Table 4
Scatter search for R1, RC1, R2, and RC2: iteration 2
Problem Tabu improvement Set covering Advance recovery
NR Distance CPU time NR Distance CPU time NR Distance CPU time
R101 19 1650.80 1.13 19 1650.80 0.01 19 1650.8 –a
R102 17 1486.12 1.86 17 1486.12 0.01 17 1486.12 –a
R103 13 1298.34 3.76 13 1293.59 0.04 13 1292.94 0.39
R104 10 989.40 15.94 10 982.02 0.18 10 982.02 0.19
R105 14 1377.11 12.03 14 1377.11 0.03 14 1377.11 –a
R106 12 1254.27 2.14 12 1252.06 0.13 12 1252.06 0.18
R107 10 1121.70 10.14 10 1104.96 1.13 10 1104.96 0.19
R108 9 968.63 14.20 9 968.63 4.80 9 968.63 0.19
R109 11 1195.36 8.37 11 1194.73 0.67 11 1194.73 0.20
R110 11 1094.91 17.00 10 1122.55 12.52 10 1121.01 0.31
R111 10 1115.58 15.50 10 1102.82 0.90 10 1102.82 0.19
R112 10 967.59 20.06 10 960.78 5.31 10 960.78 0.18
RC101 14 1698.82 11.30 14 1696.95 0.04 14 1696.95 0.15
RC102 12 1602.16 10.11 12 1557.56 13.00 12 1557.56 0.16
RC103 11 1264.59 9.71 11 1261.69 0.86 11 1261.69 0.14
RC104 10 1138.59 13.14 10 1135.53 1.43 10 1135.53 0.17
RC105 13 1639.54 1.42 13 1629.44 0.08 13 1629.44 0.13
RC106 12 1392.11 13.43 11 1428.77 0.39 11 1425.77 0.25
RC107 11 1232.87 10.17 11 1230.54 0.34 11 1230.54 0.12
RC108 10 1146.66 13.54 10 1146.66 1.66 10 1146.66 0.13
R201 4 1277.64 12.24 4 1258.64 0.04 4 1258.64 –a
R202 3 1228.54 16.50 3 1228.54 0.04 3 1228.54 0.21
R203 3 961.72 17.79 3 955.87 0.03 3 955.31 0.67
R204 2 867.13 26.36 2 856.35 0.03 2 850.70 0.98
R205 3 1079.05 19.85 3 1043.90 0.02 3 1021.88 1.00
R206 3 949.02 26.20 3 947.32 0.14 3 912.26 0.86
R207 2 928.15 16.21 2 928.15 0.03 2 928.15 –a
R208 2 755.15 45.47 2 742.32 0.02 2 741.33 0.79
R209 3 962.88 13.56 3 945.71 0.13 3 945.71 –a
R210 3 993.71 15.55 3 993.71 0.02 3 983.66 0.30
R211 3 808.07 51.05 3 799.20 0.02 3 796.41 0.92
RC201 4 1479.63 2.76 4 1435.17 0.06 4 1435.17 0.90
RC202 3 1564.15 3.34 3 1467.43 0.01 3 1448.15 0.13
RC203 3 1139.21 8.97 3 1082.37 0.00 3 1082.37 0.12
RC204 3 833.89 54.85 3 820.88 0.01 3 820.88 0.41
RC205 4 1351.6 15.32 4 1338.29 0.05 4 1338.28 0.20
RC206 3 1198.55 8.28 3 1178.27 0.06 3 1178.27 0.13
RC207 3 1107.27 18.71 3 1107.26 0.05 3 1076.62 1.20
RC208 3 859.44 48.80 3 859.44 0.05 3 834.27 0.99

constructing new ones from components of previ-
ous solutions. Our scatter search implementation
was able to achieve a reduction of 8 vehicles rel-
ative to Rochat and Taillard and with a slight in-
crease in total distance. Comparing computation
times is difficult since the Rochat and Taillard re-
sults are the best found in multiple experiments.
However, they report average CPU times of 45,
43.33, 163.33, 130, 53.33, and 120 minutes for
problem sets R1, RC1, R2, RC2, C1, and C2,
respectively, using a 64 bit Silicon Graphics
Indigo 100 Mhz computer. On the same problem
sets our scatter search implementation required
an average of 39.78, 43.75, 38.93, 31.39, 17.74,
and 22.14 minutes, respectively, on a 32 bit Ath-
lon 2.25 Ghz computer.
 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622 619

Table 5
Scatter search for C1, and C2: iteration 2
Problem Tabu improvement Set covering Advance recovery
NR Distance CPU time NR Distance CPU time NR Distance CPU time
C101 10 828.94 12.01 10 828.94 0.02 10 828.94 –
C102 10 828.94 6.95 10 828.94 0.18 10 828.94 –
C103 10 824.78 7.67 10 824.78 0.66 10 824.78 –
C104 10 828.94 49.87 10 828.94 0.99 10 828.94 –
C105 10 828.94 15.29 10 828.94 0.01 10 828.94 –
C106 10 828.94 29.53 10 828.94 0.01 10 828.94 –
C107 10 828.94 18.69 10 828.94 0.02 10 828.94 –
C108 10 828.94 5.43 10 828.94 0.14 10 828.94 –
C109 10 828.94 3.84 10 828.94 0.33 10 828.94 –
C201 3 591.56 15.16 10 591.56 0.03 10 591.56 –
C202 3 591.56 22.28 3 591.56 0.06 3 591.56 –
C203 3 591.17 50.71 3 591.17 0.07 3 591.17 –
C204 3 599.68 10.23 3 590.60 0.78 3 590.60 –
C205 3 588.88 25.52 3 588.88 0.01 3 588.88 –
C206 3 588.49 3.93 3 588.49 0.01 3 588.49 –
C207 3 588.49 7.88 3 588.49 0.43 3 588.49 –
C208 3 588.32 21.94 3 588.32 0.55 3 588.32 –
–: indicates solution found in previous iteration and no CPU time required.

Table 6
Scatter search solution quality
Problem Best known Rochat and Tallard Scatter search solutions % Gap
NR Distance NR Distance NR Distance CPU time
R101 18 1607.7 19 1650.8 19 1650.82 13.13 –
R102 17 1434 17 1486.12 17 1486.12 18.14 3.635
R103 13 1292.68 14 1217.44 13 1292.94 27.28 0.020
R104 9 1007.24 10 984.69 10 982.18 65.52 –
R105 14 1377.11 14 1377.11 14 1377.11 32.37 0
R106 12 1251.98 12 1251.98 12 1252.06 22.41 0.006
R107 10 1104.66 10 1159.86 10 1104.66 31.67 0
R108 9 960.88 9 997.33 9 968.63 65.39 0.807
R109 11 1194.73 11 1245.65 11 1194.73 35.35 0
R110 10 1118.59 11 1082.05 10 1121.01 68.63 0.216
R111 10 1096.72 10 1184.22 10 1102.82 42.43 0.556
R112 9 982.14 10 953.56 10 960.78 55.01 –
RC101 14 1696.94 15 1623.61 14 1696.94 35.59 0
RC102 12 1554.75 13 1477.56 12 1557.56 51.41 0.181
RC103 11 1261.67 11 1262.01 11 1261.69 43.01 0.001
RC104 10 1135.48 10 1135.84 10 1135.53 54.27 0.004
RC105 13 1629.44 14 1540.24 13 1629.44 29.09 0
RC106 11 1424.73 12 1384.95 11 1425.77 38.06 0.073
RC107 11 1230.48 11 1230.98 11 1230.54 42.29 0.004
RC108 10 1139.82 10 1170.72 10 1146.66 56.24 0.600
R201 4 1252.37 4 1281.55 4 1258.64 22.79 0.501
R202 3 1191.7 4 1088.07 3 1228.54 34.86 3.091
R203 3 939.54 3 948.7 3 955.31 30.66 1.678
R204 2 825.52 2 869.24 2 850.7 51.15 3.050
R205 3 994.42 3 1063.24 3 1021.88 23.86 2.761
(continued on next page)
620 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622

Table 6 (continued)
Problem Best known Rochat and Tallard Scatter search solutions % Gap
NR Distance NR Distance NR Distance CPU time
R206 3 906.14 3 912.94 3 912.26 49.27 0.675
R207 2 893.33 3 814.78 2 928.15 38.15 3.898
R208 2 726.75 2 738.55 2 741.33 62.78 2.006
R209 3 909.16 3 944.65 3 945.71 25.17 4.020
R210 3 939.34 3 967.45 3 983.66 23 4.718
R211 2 892.71 2 949.47 3 796.41 66.5 –
RC201 4 1406.91 4 1438.94 4 1435.17 6.88 2.009
RC202 3 1367.09 4 1165.56 3 1448.15 8.73 5.929
RC203 3 1049.62 3 1079.58 3 1082.37 16.03 3.120
RC204 3 798.41 3 806.75 3 820.88 73.45 2.814
RC205 4 1297.19 4 1333.71 4 1338.28 20.22 3.168
RC206 3 1146.32 3 1212.68 3 1178.27 17.43 2.787
RC207 3 1061.14 3 1085.63 3 1076.62 30.08 1.459
RC208 3 828.14 3 833.95 3 834.27 78.29 0.740
C101 10 827.3 10 829.01 10 828.94 25.91 0.198
C102 10 827.3 10 829.01 10 828.94 15.58 0.198
C103 10 826.3 10 828.14 10 828.06 15.45 0.212
C104 10 822.9 10 841.66 10 824.78 113.45 0.228
C105 10 827.3 10 829.01 10 828.94 33.11 0.198
C106 10 827.3 10 829.01 10 828.94 56.66 0.198
C107 10 827.3 10 829.01 10 828.94 36.97 0.198
C108 10 827.3 10 829.01 10 828.94 12.75 0.198
C109 10 827.3 10 829.01 10 828.94 9.6 0.198
C201 3 589.1 3 591.58 3 591.56 32.86 0.417
C202 3 589.1 3 591.58 3 591.56 50.74 0.417
C203 3 588.7 3 591.20 3 591.17 116.05 0.419
C204 3 590.6 2 597.78 3 590.60 25.73 0
C205 3 586.4 3 588.90 3 588.88 56.23 0.423
C206 3 586.0 3 588.52 3 588.49 8.61 0.425
C207 3 585.8 3 588.52 3 588.49 15.54 0.459
C208 3 585.8 3 588.52 3 588.32 48.58 0.430
Total 404 57070 416 57151 408 57589 2180.40
Average gap 1.060

Source: Marius M. Solomon http://web.cba.neu.edu/~msolomon/problems.htm.

5. Conclusions Conducting the experiments has enabled us to

We have utilized a scatter search framework to
solve the VRPTW. The scatter search framework
provided a means to combine solutions, diversify,
and intensify the metaheuristic search process.
Both the common arc method and set covering
are useful ways to combine vehicle routing solu-
tions. The proposed scatter search method was
successful in that 6 best known solutions were ob-
tained in solving the 56 test problems. Addition-
ally, the objective function gap from the best
known solutions averaged only 1.060%.
make several observations. In solving the highly
constrained VRPTW, fast local search procedures
employed in the scatter search framework failed to
yield solution quality competitive with the best
metaheuristics reported in the literature. However,
utilizing a short-term reactive tabu search meta-
heuristic together with a set covering optimiza-
tion-based procedure has led to a robust though
somewhat computationally expensive solution
method. The proposed method is more efficient
when applied to routing problems that do not have
a large number of customers per route. Computa-
 R.A. Russell, W.-C. Chiang / European Journal of Operational Research 169 (2006) 606–622
tional requirements are significantly reduced by
subset reduction methods that eliminate duplicate
subproblems as well as subproblems unlikely to
yield an effective solution.
We found that the size of the reference set does
affect solution quality. Using 20 solutions in the
reference set achieved fewer vehicle routes com-
pared to size 5 or size 10. Diversity must be a con-
sideration in reference set design. We found that
simply selecting the best 20 solutions found to up-
date the reference set (at least in this application)
yielded mediocre results with the search process
limited to a smaller solution space.
We have shown that a scatter search framework
can be used to generate solution quality that is
competitive with the current best context depend-
ent metaheuristics. The challenge for the future is
to develop solution improvement techniques that
when employed within the scatter search frame-
work, are as robust and even more efficient.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to our graduate assist-
ant, Xuan Shi, for his assistance on this project.
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