Title: On solving the Capacitated Hub Routing Problem

Authors: P.N. Ram Kumar, Appa Iyer Sivakumar

Addresses: Systems and Engineering Management Division, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639 798 Singapore. ' Systems and Engineering Management Division, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639 798 Singapore

Abstract: We introduce the combinatorial optimisation problem of routing freight on a capacitated hub-and-spoke network known as the Capacitated Hub Routing Problem (CHRP). The hubs are limited in capacity for channelling flows between the nodes served by the system. A Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model is proposed for the problem. With extensive computational results and design of experiments, it is proved that the hub capacity is the dominant factor that affects the total cost of transportation as well as the computational time required to solve a problem instance to optimality. A simple but effective heuristic is proposed for problem instances with unknown optimal solutions. The results obtained are encouraging.

Keywords: freight routing; hub-and-spoke networks; factorial design; mixed integer programming; MIP; heuristics; capacitated hub routing; combinatorial optimisation; flow channelling; system nodes; hub capacity; transportation costs; computational time; optimality; optimal solutions; logistics systems; logistics management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2011.039597

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2011 Vol.8 No.4, pp.392 - 402

Published online: 06 May 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article