A Combinatorial Branch-and-Bound Algorithm for the Capacitated Facility Location Problem under Strict Customer Preferences

This work proposes a combinatorial branch-and-bound (B&B) algorithm for the capacitated facility location problem under strict customer preferences (CFLP-SCP). We use combinatorial insights into the problem structure to do preprocessing, model branching implications, enforce feasibility or prove infeasibility in each node, select variables and derive primal and dual bounds in each node of the B&B … Read more

Insights into the computational complexity of the single-source capacitated facility location problem with customer preferences

Single-source capacitated facility location problems are well studied in the operations research literature, yet classic problems often lack practicability by disregarding the customers’ perspective: An authority that assigns customers to open facilities deprives customers from choosing facilities according to their individual preferences. In reality, this can render solutions infeasible, as customers may deviate to their … Read more

Minimum-Peak-Cost Flows Over Time

Peak cost is a novel objective for flows over time that describes the amount of workforce necessary to run a system. We focus on minimising peak costs in the context of maximum temporally repeated flows and formulate the corresponding MPC-MTRF problem. First, we discuss the limitations that emerge when restricting the solution space to integral … Read more

Cover-based inequalities for the single-source capacitated facility location problem with customer preferences

The single-source capacitated facility location problem with customer preferences (SSCFLPCP) is known to be strongly NP-hard. Computational tests imply that state-of-the-art solvers struggle with computing exact solutions. In this paper, we contribute two novel preprocessing methods which reduce the size of the considered integer programming formulation, and introduce sets of valid inequalities which decrease the … Read more