We consider competition between two decentralized supply chains network under demand uncertainty. Each chain consists of one risk-averse manufacturer and a group of risk-averse retailers. These two chains present substitutable products to the geographical dispensed markets. The markets’ demands are contingent upon prices, service levels, and advertising efforts of two supply chains. We formulat...

We present the first constant approximation to the single sink buy-at-bulk network design problem, where we have to design a network by buying pipes of different costs and capacities per unit length to route demands at a set of sources to a single sink. The distances in the underlying network form a metric. This result improves the previous bound of O(log |R|), where R is the set of sources. We...

The hierarchical hub covering facility location problems are applied to distribution systems, transportation, waste disposal, treatment services, emergency services and remote communication. The problems attempt to determine the location of service providers' facilities at different levels and specify their linking directions in order to reduce costs and to establish an appropriate condition in...

Network monitoring capabilities are critical for both network operators and networked applications. In the context of an experimental test facility, network measurement is important for researchers experimenting with new network architectures and applications, as well as operators of the test facility itself. The Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) is a sophisticated test facility...

In this paper, we propose a set of two-stage robust optimization models to design reliable p-median facility location networks subject to disruptions. A customized column-and-constraint generation approach is implemented and shown to be more effective than Benders cutting plane method. Numerical experiments are performed on real data and management insights on system design are presented. Our s...

An important concern in supply chain management is about network design, involving factories, central warehouses, regional warehouses as well as customers. The best strategy has to be ascertained for distributing products within this network. The objective is to select the optimal numbers and locations of central and regional warehouses such that all customer demands are satisfied at minimum to...

This paper derives the distribution of the difference between the distances to the first and the second nearest facilities. Facilities are represented as points of regular and random patterns, and distance is measured as Euclidean and rectilinear distances on a continuous plane. Since the difference between the distances is regarded as the additional travel distance of customers when the neares...

The use of the simulation-based technique in facility layout has been a choice in the industry due to its convenience and efficient generation of results. Nevertheless, the solutions generated are not capable of addressing delays due to worker’s health and safety which significantly impact overall operational efficiency. It is, therefore, critical to incorporate ergonomics in facility design. I...