Title
Supply capacity acquisition and allocation with uncertain customer demands
Abstract
We study a class of capacity acquisition and assignment problems with stochastic customer demands often found in operations planning contexts. In this setting, a supplier utilizes a set of distinct facilities to satisfy the demands of different customers or markets. Our model simultaneously assigns customers to each facility and determines the best capacity level to operate or install at each facility. We propose a branch-and-price solution approach for this new class of stochastic assignment and capacity planning problems. For problem instances in which capacity levels must fall between some pre-specified limits, we offer a tailored solution approach that reduces solution time by nearly 80% over an alternative approach using a combination of commercial nonlinear optimization solvers. We have also developed a heuristic solution approach that consistently provides optimal or near-optimal solutions, where solutions within 0.01% of optimality are found on average without requiring a nonlinear optimization solver.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1016/j.ejor.2009.10.030
European Journal of Operational Research
Keywords
Field
DocType
Assignment,Capacity acquisition,Newsvendor,Branch-and-price,Stochastic demand
Mathematical optimization,Heuristic,Newsvendor model,Nonlinear programming,Capacity planning,Assignment problem,Resource allocation,Solver,Stochastic programming,Operations management,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
204
2
0377-2217
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.40
19
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kevin Taaffe1749.53
Joseph Geunes230828.72
H. Edwin Romeijn376983.88