Scientists at New York University Target Algorithms
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According to the authors of a study from New York City, New York, "We study a reliable facility location problem wherein some facilities are subject to failure from time to time. If a facility fails, customers originally assigned to it have to be reassigned to other (operational) facilities."
"We formulate this problem as a two-stage stochastic program and then as a nonlinear integer program. Several heuristics that can produce near-optimal solutions are proposed for this NP-hard problem," wrote Z.J.M. Shen and colleagues, New York University.
The researchers concluded: "For the special case where the probability that a facility fails is a constant (independent of the facility), we provide an approximation algorithm with a worst-case bound of 4. The effectiveness of our heuristics is tested by extensive computational studies, which also lead to some managerial insights."
Shen and colleagues published the results of their research in INFORMS Journal on Computing (The Reliable Facility Location Problem: Formulations, Heuristics, and Approximation Algorithms. INFORMS Journal on Computing, 2011;23(3):470-482).
For additional information, contact Z.J.M. Shen, New York University, Dept. of Informat Operat & Management Science, Stern School Business, New York City, NY 10012, United States.
The publisher of the INFORMS Journal on Computing can be contacted at: Informs, 7240 Parkway Dr., Ste. 310, Hanover, MD 21076-1344, USA.
This article was prepared by Computer Weekly News editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2011, Computer Weekly News via VerticalNews.com.