Planejamento de rotas de uma empresa distribuidora de alimentos através da heurística de Clarke e Wright (1963).

Abstract

The present work is characterized as a study case in a food distribution company located at the city of Esperança-PB, and the general goal is to identify improvement opportunities at the Paraiba Distribuidora company’s route planning by applying Clarke’s and Wright`s method (1963); The chosen method is based on the profit gain model, and it aims to minimize the total travelled distance by all the company’s vehicles. The research developed at Campina Grande city – PB, an important food market attended by Paraiba Distributora (fictitious name), where it was applied an interview for primary data gathering, such as: characterization of the company, identify mainly faced delivery logistics issues , in addition to the customers’ city location; To achieve this, the city of Campina Grande was divided

into five geographical areas, generating a route that included a group of 20 clients (non- probability, nor random sample, defined by geographic proximity). The routes

obtained by the method application were presented for the Company Director assessment. Confronting the results obtained and the Manager's assessment it was possible to conclude that the method is an improvement of the Company’s logistic activities for its flexibility and simple application, not requiring any additional investment, and may assisting for a delivery time variability solution, one of the problems pointes out by the company in the interview script. Thus, the work demonstrates the feasibility of applying the method to the situation presented.