International Journal of Industrial Engineering & Production Research

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Hub location-allocation problems are currently a subject of keen interest in the research community. However, when this issue is considered in practice, significant difficulties such as traffic, commodity transportation and telecommunication tend to be overlooked. In this paper, a novel robust mathematical model for a p-hub covering problem, which tackles the intrinsic uncertainty of some parameters, is investigated. The main aim of the mathematical model is to minimize costs involving: 1) the covering cost 2) the sum of the transportation costs 3) the sum of the opening cost of facilities in the hubs 4) the sum of the reopening cost of facilities in hubs 5) the sum of the activating cost facilities in hubs and 6) the sum of the transporters' purchasing cost. To solve this model, use has been made of the new extensions to the robust optimization theory. To evaluate the robustness of the solutions obtained by the novel robust optimization approach, they are compared to those generated by the deterministic mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for a number of different test problems. Finally, the conclusions are presented.

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This paper offers an approach that could be useful for diverse types of layout problems or even area allocation problems. By this approach there is no need to large number of discrete variables and only by few continues variables large-scale layout problems could be solved in polynomial time. This is resulted from dividing area into discrete and continuous dimensions. Also defining decision variables as starting and finishing point of departments in area makes it possible to model layout problem so. This paper also provides new technique that models basic constraints of layout problems.

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This article addresses a single row facility layout problem where the objective is to optimize the arrangement of some rectangular facilities with different dimensions on a line. Regarding the NP-Hard nature of the considered problem, a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm based on simulated annealing has been proposed to obtain a near optimal solution. A number of test problems are randomly generated and the results obtained by the proposed hybrid meta-heuristic are compared with exact solutions. The results imply that the proposed hybrid method provides more efficient solutions for the large-sized problem instances.

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This paper considers a bi-objective mathematical model for locations of landfills, transfer stations and material recovery facilities (MRFs) in order to serve the entire regions and simultaneously identify the capacities of landfills. This is a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model, whose objectives are to minimize the total cost and pollution simultaneously. To validate the model, a numerical example is solved an augmented ε-constraint method and the associated computational results are presented to show the number of solid waste facilities and location of sites for solid waste facilities.

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This paper presents a bi-objective capacitated hub arc location problem with single assignment for designing a metro network with an elastic demand. In the literature, it is widely supposed that the network created with the hub nodes is complete. In this paper, this assumption is relaxed. Moreover, in most hub location problems, the demand is assumed to be static and independent of the location of hubs. However, in real life problems, especially for locating a metro hub, the demand is dependent on the utility that is proposed by each hub. By considering the elasticity of demand, the complexity of solving the problem increases. The presented model also has the ability to compute the number of trains between each pair of two hubs. The objectives of this model are to maximize the benefits of transportation and establishing the hub facilities while minimizing the total transportation time. Furthermore, the bi-objective model is converted into a single objective one by the TH method. The significance of applicability of the developed model is demonstrated by a number of numerical experiments and some sensitivity analyses on the data inspired by the Qom monorail project. Finally, the conclusion is provided.

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The fundamental function of a cellular manufacturing system (CMS) is based on definition and recognition of a type of similarity among parts that should be produced in a planning period. Cell formation (CF) and cell layout design are two important steps in implementation of the CMS. This paper represents a new nonlinear mathematical programming model for dynamic cell formation that employs the rectilinear distance notion to determine the layout in the continuous space. In the proposed model, machines are considered unreliable with a stochastic time between failures. The objective function calculates the costs of inter and intra-cell movements of parts and the cost due to the existence of exceptional elements (EEs), cell reconfigurations and machine breakdowns. Due to the problem complexity, the presented mathematical model is categorized in NP-hardness; thus, a genetic algorithm (GA) is used for solving this problem. Several crossover and mutation strategies are adjusted for GA and parameters are calibrated based on Taguchi experimental design method. The great efficiency of the proposed GA is then demonstrated via comparing with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the optimum solution via GAMS considering several small/medium and large-sized problems. 

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In this paper, a new model of hub locating has been solved considering reliability and importance of flow congestion on hub nodes in a dynamic environment. Each of nodes considered as hubs and their communication paths with other non-hubs nodes have specific reliability. In order to reduce input flow to any hub and avoid creation unsuitable environmental and traffic conditions in that area, efficiency capacity is allocated to each hub, which is subject to a penalty in case of exceeding this amount. Another capability of this model is the ability of deciding whether hubs are active or inactive in each period, so hub facilities can be established or closed due to different conditions (such as changes in demand, legislative, etc.). The model is non-linear and bi-objective that the first goal is reducing transportation costs, hub rental fees and extra flow congestion penalties on hub nodes and the second goal is to increase the minimum designed network reliability. After linearization of the model, using ε-constraint method, optimal boundary is obtained. Also, to demonstrate the performance of the model, we use IAD dataset for solving problem. To evaluate the model, sensitivity analysis is presented for some of important parameters of the model.

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It is indispensable that any manufacturing system is consistent with potential changes such as fluctuations in demand. The uncertainty also makes it more essential. Routing Flexibility (RF) is one of the necessities to any modern manufacturing system such as Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS). This paper suggests three mixed integer nonlinear programming models for the Unequal–Area Stochastic Dynamic Facility Layout Problems (UA–SDFLPs) by considering the Routing Flexibility. The models are proposed when the independent demands follow the random variable with the Poisson, Exponential, and Normal distributions. To validation of the proposed models, many small-sized test problems has solved that derived from a real case in literature. The large-sized test problems are solved by the Genetic Algorithm (GA) at a reasonable computational time. The obtained results indicate that the discussed models for the UA–SDFLPs are valid and the managers can take these models to the manufacturing floor to adapt to the potential changes in today's competitive market.
 

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To demonstrate the importance of customer satisfaction can mention numbers of the service providers that attempt to differentiate themselves by satisfied their customers, witnessed high growth. In this paper, some factors that increase retailers and customers’ satisfaction, such as driver consistent services and delivering fresh products, are considered in a perishable inventory routing problem (PIRP) under possibility and necessity class of fuzzy uncertainty measures. In a typical inventory routing problem (IRP), a distribution center delivers products to a set of customers through a limited time horizon, and simultaneously makes a decision about inventory and routing to minimize the total cost. The proposed model is formulated as mixed-integer programming. Two types of consistent driver services are regarded for different kinds of customers, including particular and typical customers. To investigate the validity of the model, the problem is solved for two values of possibility and necessity measures.