PROPEL: Supervised and Reinforcement Learning for Large-Scale Supply Chain Planning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Akhlaghi, Vahid Eghbal, Zandehshahvar, Reza, Van Hentenryck, Pascal
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Akhlaghi, Vahid Eghbal
Zandehshahvar, Reza
Van Hentenryck, Pascal
author_facet Akhlaghi, Vahid Eghbal
Zandehshahvar, Reza
Van Hentenryck, Pascal
contents This paper considers how to fuse Machine Learning (ML) and optimization to solve large-scale Supply Chain Planning (SCP) optimization problems. These problems can be formulated as MIP models which feature both integer (non-binary) and continuous variables, as well as flow balance and capacity constraints. This raises fundamental challenges for existing integrations of ML and optimization that have focused on binary MIPs and graph problems. To address these, the paper proposes PROPEL, a new framework that combines optimization with both supervised and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) to reduce the size of search space significantly. PROPEL uses supervised learning, not to predict the values of all integer variables, but to identify the variables that are fixed to zero in the optimal solution, leveraging the structure of SCP applications. PROPEL includes a DRL component that selects which fixed-at-zero variables must be relaxed to improve solution quality when the supervised learning step does not produce a solution with the desired optimality tolerance. PROPEL has been applied to industrial supply chain planning optimizations with millions of variables. The computational results show dramatic improvements in solution times and quality, including a 60% reduction in primal integral and an 88% primal gap reduction, and improvement factors of up to 13.57 and 15.92, respectively.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_07383
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle PROPEL: Supervised and Reinforcement Learning for Large-Scale Supply Chain Planning
Akhlaghi, Vahid Eghbal
Zandehshahvar, Reza
Van Hentenryck, Pascal
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
This paper considers how to fuse Machine Learning (ML) and optimization to solve large-scale Supply Chain Planning (SCP) optimization problems. These problems can be formulated as MIP models which feature both integer (non-binary) and continuous variables, as well as flow balance and capacity constraints. This raises fundamental challenges for existing integrations of ML and optimization that have focused on binary MIPs and graph problems. To address these, the paper proposes PROPEL, a new framework that combines optimization with both supervised and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) to reduce the size of search space significantly. PROPEL uses supervised learning, not to predict the values of all integer variables, but to identify the variables that are fixed to zero in the optimal solution, leveraging the structure of SCP applications. PROPEL includes a DRL component that selects which fixed-at-zero variables must be relaxed to improve solution quality when the supervised learning step does not produce a solution with the desired optimality tolerance. PROPEL has been applied to industrial supply chain planning optimizations with millions of variables. The computational results show dramatic improvements in solution times and quality, including a 60% reduction in primal integral and an 88% primal gap reduction, and improvement factors of up to 13.57 and 15.92, respectively.
title PROPEL: Supervised and Reinforcement Learning for Large-Scale Supply Chain Planning
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07383