creating a frequency schedule for salespeople

[chuckann3041]

I need to create some sort of schedule for our salespeople to save them time and money. What I have is the customer name, city, zip, How many times per month they are visited, and time of visit. I need to figure out some way to schedule each day for the salesperson that would allow them to see the maximum amount of customers but minimize driving. I have downloaded a .txt file of all the zip codes. I keep running in to walls as to where to start. Any ideas??

K. Kemp

http://www.americanmadeflooring.com

 

[Remou]

Is this the travelling salesman?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem

 

[chuckann3041]

It may be....however that article lost me....which lends me to believe that there isn't an easy solution to my problem. Am I correct?

K. Kemp

http://www.americanmadeflooring.com

 

[Remou]

I think that is right.

 

[Remou]

However, it is a standard problem, so you may find a number of ready-made solutions. For example:

http://www.codeproject.com/cpp/tspapp.asp

 

[chuckann3041]

What if we take cost out of the equation, and just try to maximize the number of customers they can see in a day?

K. Kemp

http://www.americanmadeflooring.com

 

[Remou]

Cost is not the main factor. This problem famously hard problem (

http://www.tsp.gatech.edu/)

has been going around since the 1800s. I really think that a search is likely to be the best bet. You will find that a number of companies offer routing software that may suit, for example:

http://www.mapmechanics.com/routing-and-scheduling/truckstops-routing-and-scheduling-software.htm

 

[Remou]

You may also wish to look at this

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1279128&page=1.

 

[fneily]

This is a classic operations research problem, also known as an optimizing problem. I had to solve this before PC's back in 1975. See any linear algebra book for a solution. By the way, depending on the number of salespeople, the answer you get may not be the ultimate solution, just near it.
And there is a reference to the question dating back to 120 B.C. - what's the shortest route to travel between some Greek cities.