Approximation algorithms for replenishment problems with fixed turnover times

We introduce and study a class of optimization problems we coin replenishment problems with fixed turnover times: a very natural model that has received little attention in the literature. Nodes with capacity for storing a certain commodity are located at various places; at each node the commodity depletes within a certain time, the turnover time, which is constant but can vary between locations. Nodes should never run empty, and to prevent this we may schedule nodes for replenishment every day. The natural feature that makes this problem interesting is that we may schedule a replenishment (well) before a node becomes empty, but then the next replenishment will be due earlier also. This added workload needs to be balanced against the cost of routing vehicles to do the replenishments. In this paper, we focus on the aspect of minimizing routing costs. However, the framework of recurring tasks, in which the next job of a task must be done within a fixed amount of time after the previous one is much more general and gives an adequate model for many practical situations.