The Stochastic and Dynamic Traveling Purchaser Problem

In this paper, we analyze a dynamic and stochastic variant of the traveling purchaser problem where quantity available for each product in each market decreases over time according to a stochastic process. The multiobjective nature of the problem is faced through a hierarchical evaluation of the different objectives. We introduce three variants of a heuristic approach using reoptimization to exploit new information as it becomes available. The proposed approaches are studied under different operating scenarios characterized by the communication technologies at hand and by the level of information available on the state of the world. Extensive computational results show how communication and a good level of information represent valuable tools for a decision maker, and provide interesting guidelines for decision makers involved with similar stochastic and dynamic problems.