Title: A stochastic approach for a novel p-hub location-allocation problem with opening and reopening modes

Authors: Ali Ghodratnama; Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam; Amir Azaron

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kharazmi University, Karaj, Iran ' School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Industrial Engineering, İstanbul Şehir University, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: A hub location problem appears in a variety of applications involving airline systems, cargo delivery systems and telecommunication network design. The plants known as hubs serve client nodes involving hub and spoke nodes. To act optimally plants work through time horizon. Thus, opening, reopening and active modes as well as their operational cost are accounted for. We have a single objective function that minimises the total expected cost. Additionally, to come close more and more to reality, we consider a stochastic environment, in which a scenario-based type is considered and dedicated a specific probability. The experimental results illustrate the impact of the stochastic environment compared to the deterministic one. A stochastic mathematical model yields a less amount of the objective function value compared with the deterministic one. Finally, a wide sensitivity analysis is performed to recognise the impact of the main parameters on the final solutions.

Keywords: hub location-allocation problem; plant location; opening modes; reopening modes; stochastic modelling; mathematical modelling; hub location; hubs; hub and spoke nodes; total expected cost.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPSCM.2015.073768

International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling, 2015 Vol.7 No.4, pp.305 - 337

Received: 24 Jun 2013
Accepted: 23 May 2014
Published online: 22 Dec 2015 *

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