Time Slot Management in Attended Home Delivery

35 Pages Posted: 15 May 2008

See all articles by Niels Agatz

Niels Agatz

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM)

Ann Melissa Campbell

University of Iowa - Department of Management Sciences

Moritz Fleischmann

University of Mannheim, Business School

Martin Savelsbergh

Georgia Institute of Technology - College of Engineering

Date Written: 16 2008 4,

Abstract

Many e-tailers providing attended home delivery, especially e-grocers, offer narrow delivery time slots to ensure satisfactory customer service. The choice of delivery time slots has to balance marketing and operational considerations, which results in a complex planning problem. We study the problem of selecting the set of time slots to offer in each of the zip codes in a service region. The selection needs to facilitate cost-effective delivery routes, but also needs to ensure an acceptable level of service to the customer. We present two fully-automated approaches that are capable of producing high-quality delivery time slot offerings in a reasonable amount of time. Computational experiments reveal the value of these approaches and the impact of the environment on the underlying trade-offs.

Keywords: e-grocery, home delivery, time slots, vehicle routing, continuous approximation, integer programming

JEL Classification: M11, R4, M, C61

Suggested Citation

Agatz, Niels A.H. and Campbell, Ann Melissa and Fleischmann, Moritz and Savelsbergh, Martin, Time Slot Management in Attended Home Delivery (16 2008 4,). ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2008-022-LIS, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1131031

Niels A.H. Agatz (Contact Author)

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
Room T08-21
3000 DR Rotterdam, 3000 DR
Netherlands

Ann Melissa Campbell

University of Iowa - Department of Management Sciences ( email )

IA
United States

Moritz Fleischmann

University of Mannheim, Business School ( email )

University of Mannheim
P.O. Box 10 34 62
Mannheim, 68131
Germany

Martin Savelsbergh

Georgia Institute of Technology - College of Engineering ( email )

Atlanta, GA 30332
United States

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