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CC BY-SA V4.0, Open Access
This zip file contains the 11 instances used in the paper “Continuous time scheduling for sugarcane harvest logistics in Louisiana.” (https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2015.1052156) You can find the publication details for that paper at http://myweb.uiowa.edu/bthoa/iowa/Research.html. The paper contains all of the details regarding the construction of the sets.
In summary, there are 11 mills and approximately 475 farms in Louisiana. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/results/87A51B62-DE8D-322D-8C98-88FEF17FBB6F) provide zip-code level addresses for 456 farms, and The American Sugar League (http://www.amscl.org/factories) provides exact addresses of the 11 mills. We also have the county level data on sizes of the farms that puts them into buckets of various sizes (http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/results/D413417A-C18E-328A-8F69-D7B4534720C1). First, we calculate the distances between the farms and the mills. Then, we randomly assign the sizes for the individual farms according to the distribution of farm sizes in the respective counties. We then assume that farms that harvest more than 750 acres of cane a year have two combine harvesters and the ones that harvest less than 750 acres have one combine harvester. This harvester distribution is motivated by the fact Salassi and Barker (2008) found the average number of combines to be 1.5. Each combine harvester takes approximately 45 minutes to fill a load. So, the time to harvest a load in the farm with one harvester is 45 minutes plus a small random component (chosen from uniform random between negative 5 and positive 5) and the time to harvest a load in the farm with two harvesters is 22.5 minutes plus a small random component (chosen from uniform random between negative 2.5 and positive 2.5) (Barker 2007, Salassi and Barker 2008).
Each row of each of the files represents a farm. For each farm, there are three columns of data. The columns are the distance to the mill from the farm, the inter-harvest time, and the number of loads to be supplied by the farm. The inter-harvest time is the amount of time needed to harvest one load at the farm.
References
Francis G. Barker. An economic evaluation of sugarcane combine harvester costs and optimal harvest schedules for Louisiana. PhD thesis, Louisiana State University, 2007.
Michael E. Salassi and F. Gil Barker. Reducing harvest costs through coor- dinated sugarcane harvest and transport operations in Louisiana. Journal Association Sugar Cane Technologists, 28:32–41, 2008.