When centers can fail: A close second opportunity

摘要

This paper presents the p-next center problem, which aims to locate p out of n centers so as to minimize the maximum cost of allocating customers to backup centers. In this problem it is assumed that centers can fail and customers only realize that their closest (reference) center has failed upon arrival. When this happens, they move to their backup center, Le. to the center that is closest to the reference center. Hence, minimizing the maximum travel distance from a customer to its backup center can be seen as an alternative approach to handle humanitarian logistics, that hedges customers against severe scenario deteriorations when a center fails.