Proportional self-organizing map (PSOM) based on flexible capacity buffer for allocating sugar cane loading stations

In this paper, the problem of locating sugar cane loading stations for the sugar cane industry in Thailand to reduce the expensive transportation cost is addressed. The suitable number of farmer clusters must be identified first. Then, a loading station is assigned to each cluster. The objective is to minimize the differences of farmer clusters in terms of the amount of supplied sugar cane and transporting distance. We develop an algorithm, which can simultaneously cluster sugar cane farmers and locate cluster\´s loading station. The proposed algorithm is named "proportional self-organizing map (PSOM)". Since the capacity of each loading station and transporting distance from farms to a station would be proportionally adapted.