Enhancing E-Grocery-Delivery-Network Resilience with Autonomous Delivery Robots

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The problem of efficient planning and operation of an E-grocery delivery system sounds interesting and seems significant from a practical point of view. Nevertheless, in my opinion, some issues require clarification and the manuscript would benefit from some corrections. Detailed comments and suggestions are as follows:

1. In my opinion, a broader literature review and reference list could be recommended.

2. In subsection 3.3. Chance constraint model before introducing the constraints the description of the model and its objective is recommended.

3. Could you please explain on what basis the assumption about lognormal distribution of some parameters are made?

4. Some description of case study presented in Experimentation section, before setting parameters, is recommended.

5. It is stated that “We set the parameters of demand and travel time with mean value.”. Could you please explain on what data the parameters are set in the experiment? 

6. In my opinion, a scheme of procedure of solving the problem or some simulation flowchart could be interesting to the reader. Some information about used simulation tool can be added.

Author Response

Thank your for your comment. Please find our response in the attached file. Thanks again.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This study proposes two models for two-echelon vehicle routing problem. First model is deterministic model and second one is  chance constraint model. The simulation results are reported where chance constraint model reduces unmet demands compared to the deterministic model. Overall, the manuscript is well-written. Methods and results are clear. However, before acceptance of the manuscript for publication, the authors needs to address the following issues.

 

1. In line 24 of page 2, "numbers to customers were minimized (10)" should be "numbers to customers were minimized [10]".

2. In page 2-3, they introduce notations. Are the notations are common for describing 2E-VRP? Then, please add some references. For example please add sentences like "Following the notations of ... introduced in, we introduce notations ", somewhere in subsection 3.1.

3. Regarding the presentation of the table in page 3-4 which summarizes the notations, please add some caption. For example, "Table xx, summary of notations of variables"

4. Subsection 3.2.1. and 3.2.3., 3.2.4, 3.2.5 commence with the equations. It is not usual way to start subsection with equations. Therefore, it is better to add some introductory sentences before the equations.

5. (Regarding the experimentation) The author believes that these experiments are made in virtual simulation not real experiments. Please clarify that experiments are given in virtual simulation. 

6. Are the experiments are conducted through "on-house" code or commercial code? If the authors made experiments via some commercial code, please add some references.

7. Figures should be improved. For examples, embedded texts are hard to read. Also, please enhance the resolutions.

 

Before resubmitting the manuscripts, please go-through the grammar check.

Author Response

Thank you for your comment, please find our response in the attached file. Thanks again.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The ideas in this paper are good and the research design is relatively reasonable. At the same time, the proposed methods are described and explained in detail. However, this article still has some deficiencies as follows:

1. Identification of Key Research Gaps: It is essential to identify existing research gaps and limitations within the field of autonomous delivery vehicles in e-grocery delivery networks. This could involve identifying specific challenges, assessing the current state of research in addressing these issues.

2. The Introduction and Literatures review also need to be enhanced, especially on VRP, ADR and Chance Constraint Model, et, al. These articles may be helpful for improving this paper: the fourth-party logistics routing problem using ant colony system-improved grey wolf optimization, 4pl routing problem using hybrid beetle swarm optimization, a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm for the multi-objective location-routing problem in the early post-disaster stage.

3. Many formulas are not on the right position, please adjust them.

4. The results from chance constraint programming model need to be discussed in more detail, this paper can be refereed to improve the discussion, chance-constraint programming model and algorithm for risk management of virtual enterprise.

5. Assuming that the time needed to travel and the amount of groceries requested follow known probability distributions independently and uniformly can introduce certain limitations and potential problems in the analysis. For example, during peak shopping hours, travel time and demand for groceries may both increase simultaneously. Ignoring such correlations can result in inefficient vehicle routing plans, leading to higher unmet demands and reduced resiliency.

 Moderate editing of English language required

Author Response

Thank you for your comment, please find our response in the attached file. Thanks again.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors addressed all my comments and revised the paper in a satisfactory manner.

Reviewer 3 Report

I have no more questions.