On Improvements to the Analytic Center Cutting Plane Method
Computational Optimization and Applications
Discrete Mathematics
Toward Self-Integrating Software Applications for Supply Chain Management
Information Systems Frontiers
Branch-And-Price: Column Generation for Solving Huge Integer Programs
Operations Research
Optimal Commonality in Component Design
Operations Research
A Hybrid Heuristic for the p-Median Problem
Journal of Heuristics
Computational study of large-scale p-Median problems
Mathematical Programming: Series A and B
A branch-and-price approach to p-median location problems
Computers and Operations Research
Selected Topics in Column Generation
Operations Research
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Mass customization requires us to select a few types of resources to produce heterogeneous classes of products. In the assortment problem addressed here, a resource unit of type j yields, at a cost cij, a batch of aij product units of type i. The problem, a generalization of the p-median, calls for (i) choosing a restricted subset of resource types and (ii) assigning resource units to products so as to fulfill a given demand vector at a minimum cost. For this problem, we develop a branch-and-price scheme that can either be used to find optimal solutions, or tuned by choosing columns in a suitable class so as to get approximate solutions. The solutions obtained in the second case approach the optimum by a ratio that asymptotically reduces to zero as the demand of the least-required product increases. A comparative analysis of the features of the algorithm is discussed for a wide set of large problem instances.