THE COMBINED FACILITY LOCATION AND VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEM: FORMULATION AND SOLUTION (NETWORK FLOW, TRANSPORTATION PLANNING)

HUEL-SHENG TSAY, Purdue University

Abstract

Facility location and vehicle routing problems have been the subject of considerable attention in the operations research and management science literature in the past decade. Most research has considered facility location or vehicle routing problems separately. This may be due to the complexity and difficulty of solving the combined problem directly, using existing mathematical programming techniques. The interdependence of facility location and vehicle routing has been recognized by both researchers and practitioners. An examination of the solution procedures for the two separate problems leads to the conclusion that each cannot adequately accommodate the objectives of the other. The purpose of this study is to develop a solution technique for the simultaneous facility location-vehicle routing problem (FLVRP). Proposed methods for the FLVRP are mainly for multiple facility locations. The simultaneous location-vehicle routing problem can be considered at least NP-hard, since each of the subproblems (facility location and vehicle routing) belongs to the class of NP-hard problems. However, this research has produced optimal solutions to problems of moderate size by using Purdue's CYBER-205 super computer. These solutions may be used as benchmarks to evaluate the performance of any developed heuristics. The proposed FLVRP model can analyze the Traveling Salesman Problem, the Multi-Depot Vehicle Dispatch Problem, and the combined Facility Location-Vehicle Routing Problem. An efficient algorithm has been developed to solve the complicated general absolute 1-center problem by modifying and extending techniques recently developed for general 1-center and absolute 1-center problems. Besides, Goal Programming is considered to resolve the multi-objective school bus transportation problems.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Civil engineering

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