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An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector

Mini-Dissertation (BEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015.

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Main Author: Barends, Heidi
Other Authors: Willemse, Elias J.
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Barends, Heidi
author2 Willemse, Elias J.
author_browse Barends, Heidi
Willemse, Elias J.
author_facet Willemse, Elias J.
Barends, Heidi
author_sort Barends, Heidi
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Mini-Dissertation (BEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/44025
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:38:20.548Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/44025 An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector Barends, Heidi Willemse, Elias J. Logistics Transportation Mini-Dissertation (BEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015. The South African inland logistic systems are heavily reliant on existing road networks. The bulk transportation of goods, such as coal, increases the loads the roads currently have to carry and lead to damaged roads that in turn increase logistic costs. For these and other socio-economic reasons the strategic decision has been made by one of the major coal transportation companies in South Africa to migrate the transportation of coal as far as possible from road to rail. To support this strategy, coal consolidation centres are to be optimally located, whereby road-based coal will be diverted to the hubs and transported by rail to the demand point. The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate mathematical models that could be used by decision makers to determine optimal locations of coal consolidation centres. To ful ll this aim two mathematical models are developed: a network-based model in which a limited number of prede ned nodes along the existing rail network can be chosen as hub locations, and the continuous model in which all points on the plane are considered. The two main objectives are to decrease total operational cost and to migrate the transportation as far as possible o road and onto rail. A test case is used to highlight strengths, weaknesses and underlying behaviours of the models. The most noteworthy endings involve the major weaknesses of both models. The greatest weakness experienced by the network-based model is the limitation of the possible hub locations; improved locations not on the rail network are excluded and could yield improved results. The continuous model eliminates this weakness, however, it does not consider the distance along the rail network in calculating optimal locations. This chosen locations the continuous model yields are numerically inferior to the network-based counterparts. For these reasons the decision is taken to use both models in order to achieve optimal results; the continuous model is used to determine additional hub locations, while the network-based model is used to determine nal results. In the procedure described above, mathematical models are developed with the capability to guide decision makers in determining optimal coal consolidation centres. The results with regard to the case study are analysed to give recommendations to guide the decision-making process. Industrial and Systems Engineering Unrestricted 2015-03-16T13:03:55Z 2015-03-16T13:03:55Z 2015-04-14 2015 Mini Dissertation Barends, H 2014, An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector, Bachelor thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44025> http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44025 en © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf
spellingShingle Logistics
Transportation
Barends, Heidi
An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector
title An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector
title_full An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector
title_fullStr An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector
title_full_unstemmed An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector
title_short An Application of the Hub Location Problem in the South African Coal Transport Sector
title_sort application of the hub location problem in the south african coal transport sector
topic Logistics
Transportation
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44025
work_keys_str_mv AT barendsheidi anapplicationofthehublocationprobleminthesouthafricancoaltransportsector
AT barendsheidi applicationofthehublocationprobleminthesouthafricancoaltransportsector