Minimizing Overshipments In Bottleneck Transportation Problems

Abstract

Bottleneck transportation problems usually arise in connection with perishable comnjodities that have to be distributed as quickly as possible. A new approach is given that often permits the acceleration of the distribution. This reduction of the classical bottleneck time is obtained by allowing certain overshipments in the network. A primal algorithm will be given that determines completely the bottleneck time overshipment function. The technique will include capacity restrictions, and will also yield an efficient solution procedure for the classical bottleneck problem and for overshipment problems.

Résumé

Les problèmes de transport minimax se présentent habituellement en connection ayec des marchandises périssables qui doivent être distribuées rapidement. Une nouvelle procédure est donnée qui permet souvent d’accélérer la distribution. Cette réduction du temps minimax classique est obtenue en envoyant un montant supplémentaire à travers le réseau. Un algorithme primal sera présenté qui détermine complètement le temps minimax en fonction du surplus. Cette technique inclura les capacités et donnera aussi une méthode de solution efficace pour le problème de transport minimax classique ainsi que les problèmes de distribution avec surplus.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

G. Finke

GERD EINKE is currently Associate Professor ini the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Industrial Engineering at the Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax. He completed his PH D in mathematics at the University of Kiel (Germany) in 1969 and; has been on the faculty of the Technical University since then. His research papers have appeared in INFOR. Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, Zeitschrift fiir Operations Research, and Methods of Operations Research. Professor Einke’s recent research activities have centred on transportation and transshipment models.