Hybrid ant colony optimization for library distribution network

This paper describes a new designed materials distribution network of public libraries under National Library Board of Singapore. In the new design, the whole distribution network is segregated into a number of sub-networks, or regions, with Library Supply Center (LSC) as a central depot. The route planning for each region could be modeled as a vehicle routing problem (VRP) with both pickup and delivery, and a hybrid ant colony optimization approach is proposed to solve the problem. The initial results demonstrate significant cost savings and efficiency improvement compared with the existing network.