Single hub location-allocation problem under robustness clustering concept

Abstract

This paper presents an algorithm of hub number p robustness estimation using specific simulations in the single allocation hub location problem. The simulation has to model the service demand trends in each origin node to each destination node. This idea is based on the hub network dependence on service demand forecasting, which is modeled by random values from random distribution with parameters reflecting the demand changes. The algorithm includes the mixed integer programming model which describes the hub location-allocation problem with single allocation (each node is connected exactly to one hub). The model chooses the optimal locations for the fixed number of hubs p from the fixed possible location set in the problem. The perturbed data simulate the changes in the service need and present the perspectives of the network changes, and the algorithm fixes these changes. The number of changes in the network is consolidated into the variety frequencies which describe the variabilities in the set of simulations. The algorithm is implemented on Python 3.5 and model optimization is fulfilled using Gurobi Optimizer 7.0.1 software. The results in the real dataset are illustrated and discussed. Refs 18. Fig. 1. Tables 3.