A modified variable neighborhood search hybridized with genetic algorithm for vehicle routing problems with cross-docking

This paper addresses a novel hybrid metaheuristic combining the Genetic algorithm (GA) and Modified Variable Neighborhood Search (MVNS) for the vehicle routing problem with cross-docking. In this paper, we propose four shaking and two neighbourhood structures in a modified version of the VNS. The basic VNS is an efficient and successful method to solve combinatorial optimization problems, but sometimes applying it in problems with large solution space is time consuming, so to avoid expending too much computational time, a multi-part solution representation with a new searching approach is proposed and some modifications are applied to the VNS and hybridized with the GA. To show the effectiveness of the proposed hybridized approach, a comparative study is performed for existing vehicle routing problem with cross docking test problems.