| This paper presents a new approach to analyze the network structure in multi-commodity fixed charge network flow problems (MCFCNF). This methodology uses historical data produced from repeatedly solving the traditional MCFCNF mathematical model as input for the machine-learning framework. Further, we reshape the problem as a binary classification problem and employ machine-learning algorithms to predict network structure. This predicted network structure is further used as an initial solution for our mathematical model. The quality of the initial solution generated is judged on the basis of predictive accuracy, feasibility and reduction in solving time. |
