A linear MmTSP formulation of robust location-routing problem: a dairy products supply chain case study

The location-routing problem (LRP), which integrates location and routing decisions, has been an attraction to both researchers and practitioners. LRP as an important business problem has its own inherent uncertainty; especially, considering phenomena such as traffic congestion and weather conditions and their impact on transportation costs, routing in LRP is subject to uncertainty. In this paper, we propose a multi-depot multi-travelling salesman problem (MmTSP) formulation of robust LRP (RLRP) considering uncertainty in transportation costs. In addition, an appropriate technique is utilised to linearise the RLRP model. In order to justify the applicability of the proposed model, a dairy products supply chain case study is provided. Furthermore, comprehensive numerical examples are presented to characterise the performance of the proposed model.