Service facility location optimization during a pandemic

Service facility location optimization during a pandemic

Okan Arslan - HEC Montreal

May 7, 2021, 16:00 (GMT+3)

https://zoom.us/j/9937664491?pwd=R0FNalFFZUM0Wm9MaitiYWJrbVhodz09

Meeting ID: 993 766 4491
Passcode: 525871

Inspired by the testing and vaccination center location during COVID-19 pandemic, we discuss models for covering stationary and mobile customers in an urban region. In the first part of the talk, we focus on stationary customers and introduce the 'location-or-routing problem', in which open facilities cover the customers in their neighborhood and the uncovered customers are served by capacitated vehicles dispatched from open facilities. In this setting, a customer can be covered either by location or by routing, hence the problem name. We develop a branch-and-price algorithm, investigate the impacts of facility coverage range on the total cost and find a linear relationship between the two factors. We discuss the reasons behind this observation using arguments from asymptotic analysis. In the second part of the talk, we focus on mobile customers and drive-in facilities. We present the maximum availability service facility location problem, for which we develop an accelerated Benders decomposition algorithm. Experimental study marks the importance of mobile facilities in rapidly changing environments such as confinements. In conclusion, these generalized models have the potential to improve the availability of the service facilities for the general public and improve the system performance.

Okan Arslan is an assistant professor of operations research in HEC Montreal. He is also a member of Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT) in Canada. Okan received his BS degree in aeronautical engineering from the Turkish Air Force Academy, MS degree in operations research from the US Air Force Institute of Technology and Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering from Bilkent University. His research interests are in design and management of large-scale networks and disruptive technologies in transportation. He published in the leading journals of the field including Operations Research, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Transportation Science, Transportation Research B & E, Omega and EJOR. He received an Honorable Mention in INFORMS Transportation Science & Logistics Section Best Paper Award.