Locating a competitive facility in the plane with a robustness criterion

A new continuous location model is presented and embedded in the literature on robustness in facility location. The multimodality of the model is investigated, and a branch and bound method based on dc optimization is described. Numerical experience is reported, showing that the developed method allows one to solve in a few seconds problems with … Read more

Locating Restricted Facilities on Binary Maps

In this paper we consider several facility location problems with applications to cost and social welfare optimization, when the area map is encoded as a binary (0,1) mxn matrix. We present algorithmic solutions for all the problems. Some cases are too particular to be used in practical situations, but they are at least a starting … Read more

On the integrality of the uncapacitated facility location polytope

We study a system of linear inequalities associated with the uncapacitated facility location problem. We show that this system defines a polytope with integer extreme points if and only if the graph does not contain a certain type of odd cycles. We also derive odd cycle inequalities and give a separation algorithm. ArticleDownload View PDF

MINLP Strengthening for Separable Convex Quadratic Transportation-Cost UFL

In the context of a variation of the standard UFL (Uncapacitated Facility Location) problem, but with an objective function that is a separable convex quadratic function of the transportation costs, we present some techniques for improving relaxations of MINLP formulations. We use a disaggregation principle and a strategy of developing model-specific valid inequalities (some nonlinear), … Read more

On the p-median polytope of a special class of graphs

In this paper we consider a well known class of valid inequalities for the p-median and the uncapacitated facility location polytopes, the odd cycle inequalities. It is known that their separation problem is polynomially solvable. We give a new polynomial separation algorithm based on a reduction from the original graph. Then, we define a nontrivial … Read more

Alternative Formulation for the p-median Problem

Given a set of clients and a set of potential sites for facilities, several location problems consist of opening a set of sites and assigning each client to the closest open facility to it. It can be viewed as a variation of the uncapacitated facility location problem. We propose a new formulation of this problem … Read more

A hybrid multistart heuristic for the uncapacitated facility location problem

We present a multistart heuristic for the uncapacitated facility location problem, based on a very successful method we originally developed for the P-median problem. We show extensive empirical evidence to the effectiveness of our algorithm in practice. For most benchmarks instances in the literature, we obtain solutions that are either optimal or a fraction of … Read more

Reliability Models for Facility Location: The Expected Failure Cost Case

Classical facility location models like the P-median problem (PMP) and the uncapacitated fixed-charge location problem (UFLP) implicitly assume that once constructed, the facilities chosen will always operate as planned. In reality, however, facilities “fail” from time to time due to poor weather, labor actions, changes of ownership, or other factors. Such failures may lead to … Read more

Capacitated Facility Location Model with Risk Pooling

The Facility Location Model with Risk Pooling (LMRP) extends the uncapacitated fixed charge model to incorporate inventory decisions at the distribution centers (DCs). In this paper, we introduce a capacitated version of the LMRP that handles inventory management at the DCs such that the capacity limitations at the DCs are not exceeded. We consider a … Read more

An Efficient Exact Algorithm for the Vertex hBcCenter Problem and Computational Experiments for Different Set Covering Subproblems

We develop a simple and yet very efficient exact algorithm for the problem of locating $p$ facilities and assigning clients to them in order to minimize the maximum distance between a client and the facility to which it is assigned. The algorithm iteratively sets a maximum distance value within which it tries to assign all … Read more