A multi-exchange heuristic for the single-source capacitated facility location problem

We present a very large-scale neighborhood (VLSN) search algorithm for the capacitated facility location problem with single-source constraints. The neighborhood structures are induced by customer multiexchanges and by facility moves. We consider both traditional single-customer multi-exchanges, detected on a suitably defined customer improvement graph, and more innovative multicustomer multi-exchanges, detected on a facility improvement graph dynamically built through the use of a greedy scheme. Computational results for some benchmark instances are reported that demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach for solving large-scale problems. A further test on real data involving an Italian factory is also presented.