Location of depots in a sugar-beet distribution system

Abstract

In the following case study the problem of the location of depots in a sugar-beet distribution system for a certain sugar enterprise in Poland is considered. The sugar-beet is delivered from farms to sugar-mills either directly or through some depots. Lower and upper limits on the depot throughputs are imposed. The depot investment and operating costs are estimated by a piecewiselinear function. Given a set of possible depot locations, costs associated with the depots and the unit transportation costs, we seek a minimum cost location-transportation plan determining the number, location and sizes of the depots to be opened and the amounts of the sugar-beet flows. Two solution procedures are developed: (1) The application of MPSX and MIP systems for the problem of the reduced size; (2) The heuristic method. Based upon the computational results both approaches can be treated as alternative solution techniques to the presented problem.