A temporal decomposition approach for solving a multilocation plant sizing and timing problem

Abstract

Abstract An attempt has been made in this study to develop a two-level hierarchical temporal decomposition approach to solve the multilocation plant sizing and timing problem (MLPSTP). MLPSTP involves determination of size, location, timing and utilization of the plants to meet the growing demands of geographically distributed customers. These decisions are assumed to interact through the common objective function of minimizing the net present value (NPV) of capital costs and streams of operating and transportation costs. In this paper, we present the solution procedure for a class of MLPSTP problems, which do not involve transportation costs. A two-level hierarchy is constructed where in the higher level, the demand to be satisfied at every time period is dealt with. Given these values of demand, the decisions regarding the size and location of the project are taken at the lower level.