Algorithms for the Simple Plant-Location Problem with Some Side Conditions

Abstract

The algorithms of this paper belong to the direct-search or implicit-enumeration type. They compare to the recently proposed algorithm of Efroymson and Ray, as does the mixed integer algorithm proposed by C. E. Lemke and the author to that of Land and Doig. The general plan of procedure is expected to be equally valid for the capacitated plant-location problem and for transshipment problems with fixed charges; with some of the proposed devices more important for these difficult problems than for the simple plant location problem. Considerable computational experience has been accumulated and is discussed at some length. It suggests that additional work on the construction of “adaptive” programs, matching algorithm to data structure, is desirable.