Abstract

This article addresses a biomass feedstock logistics supply chain design problem, which comprises a multi-period facility location problem, a special case of a single-item parallel-facilities capacitated lot-sizing problem, and a network flow problem. We formulate this problem as a mixed-integer program and propose a branch-and-price-based method for its solution that relies on effective implementation strategies. Our computational investigation reveals efficacy of the proposed method in obtaining near-optimal solutions for large-sized problem instances over direct solution of our model formulation of the problem by CPLEX. Several useful managerial insights resulting from our analysis are also presented.