INDU 421 FACILITIES DESIGN AND MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEMS
Tutorial #9
Question 1
A new elementary school is needed in a suburban area of Detroit, Michigan. After extensive research, the
school board has narrowed down its choice to three possible sites. The location for the current residential
area, and possible locations for the school are shown in the tables below.
Residences x- y- Weight
Coordinate Coordinate
A 20 25 600
B 36 18 400
C 62 37 500
D 50 56 300
E 25 0 200
Possible sites for the new elementary school:
Possible x- y-
Sites Coordinate Coordinate
1 50 50
2 30 45
3 65 28
a) Determine the optimal location for the new elementary school such that the total distance the
students have to travel is minimized. It is fair to assume that the construction cost for all three sites
is similar and distance is measure rectilinearly.
b) Determine the minimax distance (considering weights, and then ignoring weights).
Question 2
Sixteen work stations are located as shown below on a tree network. The weights between existing facility
I and the new facility to be located on the tree are, respectively, w1=5; w2=2; w3=3; w4=1; w5=4; w6=2;
w7=3; w8=6; w9=2; w10=3; w11=4; w12=1; w13=1; w14=2; w15=3; w16=2.
a) Determine the optimum location for the new facility using a minisum criterion.
b) Determine the optimum location for the new facility using a minimax criterion.
