Minimax Regret Model for Liner Shipping Fleet Deployment with Uncertain Demand

Abstract

This paper proposes a minimax regret model for liner shipping fleet deployment with uncertain demand. The minimax regret model does not need the probability distribution function of the demand, and the model is consistent with how network planners are evaluated. However, the model is large because of the incorporation of all possible demand scenarios. A dynamic scenario inclusion method is proposed for efficiently solving the minimax model with only a small subset of the demand scenarios. A case study based on an Asia–Europe–Oceania liner shipping network demonstrates the applicability of the proposed model and method.