Solving the Multi-Allocation p-Hub Median Problem with Stochastic Travel Times: A Simheuristic Approach.

The p-hub median problems (pHMPs) are a well-researched topic within the fields of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering. These problems have been found to have a wide range of practical applications in various areas such as logistics, retailing, and Internet computing. These applications have made pHMPs an important area of study, leading to numerous research efforts aimed at solving different variations of the problem. This paper presents a simheuristic algorithm for solving the uncapacitated version of the pHMP with stochastic travel times. The proposed approach combines simulation with biased-randomized heuristics to generate high-quality solutions quickly. The proposed method is validated by testing it on huge benchmark instances, which include stochastic travel times. The results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach for this particular problem variation. The simulation-optimization approach provides a promising solution to a practical problem that arises in many real-world applications.