Reducing the Number of Decision Variables in Ready Mixed Concrete for Optimally Solving Small Instances in a Practical Time

In this paper a new formulation is presented for optimally solving single depot Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) with a homogeneous fleet. Most introduced models in the literature deal with individual deliveries; however, the proposed model is based on customers’ specifications. This results in a reduction in the number of constraints as well as in the number of variables. Therefore, the solution space of the proposed formulation is smaller than similar ones introduced in the literature. Consequently, it can be solved faster than similar formulations, which provides an opportunity for optimally solving small to medium sized RMC problems. In practice, this formulation can be used for solving resource allocation tasks in RMC.