David W. Cox

Date of Award

3-1998

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Operational Sciences

First Advisor

Yupo Chan, PhD

Abstract

Traditionally, the United States Air Force's Air Mobility Command (AMC) has used the concept of direct delivery to airlift cargo and passengers from a point of embarkation to a point of debarkation. This study develops an alternative hub-and-spoke combined location-routing integer linear programming prototype model, and uses this model to determine what advantages a hub-and-spoke system offers, and in which scenarios it is better-suited than the direct delivery method. Additionally, the analysis suggests that the C-17 may be better-suited, in certain airlift situations, for theater airlift versus strategic (direct delivery) airlift. The model features the following elements: time windows, cargo tracking capability, multiple frequency servicing, aircraft basing assignments and routing, and the selection of the optimal number of local-delivery aircraft to be used. The model is an extension on the following works: the hierarchical model of Perl and Daskin (1983), time windows features of Chan (1991), combining subtour-breaking and range constraints of Kulkarni and Bhave (1985), and multiple servicing frequency via the clustering co-location method for binary variables of Baker (1991). Additionally, an original approach for cargo tracking is developed and incorporated. A notional CONUS-to-Korea transoceanic airlift problem is used to demonstrate the numerous features and power of the model.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GOR-ENS-98M-07

DTIC Accession Number

ADA342179

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