Scribd
Upload
10 views2 pages

Facility Location Problem

The Facility Location Problem (FLP) aims to determine optimal locations for facilities to minimize costs related to setup and operations while serving a specific customer base. It can be categorized into capacitated and uncapacitated problems and utilizes various mathematical and heuristic methods for solutions, including linear programming and genetic algorithms. FLP has applications in diverse fields such as supply chain management, clustering analysis, and network design.

Uploaded by

shobhit
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
10 views2 pages

Facility Location Problem

The Facility Location Problem (FLP) aims to determine optimal locations for facilities to minimize costs related to setup and operations while serving a specific customer base. It can be categorized into capacitated and uncapacitated problems and utilizes various mathematical and heuristic methods for solutions, including linear programming and genetic algorithms. FLP has applications in diverse fields such as supply chain management, clustering analysis, and network design.

Uploaded by

shobhit
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Facility Location Problem

The FLP problem is a problem which almost every industry in the country
knows about. It works to determine location for one or more facilities to serve
a certain set of customers. We target to minimize costs associated with facility
setup, operation, and other logistics. The problem can be broken into
capacitated and uncapacitated problems, depending on whether the facilities
in question have a maximum capacity or not.

If we look at origin of this problem, over the time it has been given a lot of
names from the Fermat problem, the Fermat – Torricelli problem, the Steiner
problem, the Weber problem, median problem, the bivariate problem and
many more. [Daskin et.al, 1997]. But the credit to its origin is given majorly to
Fermat.

In simple mathematical formulation is to find the minimum point (x,y) which


minimizes the sum of weighted Euclidean distances from itself to n fixed points
with co-ordinates (ai , bi). [Drezner et.al,1995]

The exact methods to solve the problem is computationally difficult and time –
consuming. Linear programming is used to formulate and solve FLPs. Other
methods are Integer Programming, Branch and bound and cutting plane
methods. [Drezner et.al, 2004]

Other heuristic methods include Greedy algorithms, simulated annealing,


Genetic algorithms, Tabu Search and Metaheuristic hybrids. K-means clustering
and hierarchical clustering.

Facility location models have diverse applications beyond distribution systems.


These include clustering analysis, bank account location, vendor selection,
offshore platform placement, database location, concentrator placement in
networks, and database index selection. Each application involves determining
optimal locations for facilities or resources and allocating corresponding
entities to them. These models help optimize various processes, from supply
chain management to network design and data management.
References

1. Drezner, Z. and Hamacher, H.W. eds., 2004. Facility location:


applications and theory. Springer Science & Business Media..

2. Daskin, M., 1997. Network and discrete location: models, algorithms and
applications. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 48(7), pp.763-
764.

3. Drezner, Z. and Hamacher, H.W. eds., 2004. Facility location:


applications and theory. Springer Science & Business Media.

You might also like