Explain the multiple criteria involved in the location decision-making process.

As you assess the situation, offer a qualitative analysis of the challenges involved.
Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) or multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a
sub-discipline of operations research that explicitly evaluates multiple conflicting criteria in
decision making. In location decision-making process, multiple criteria involves labor productivity,
foreign exchange, culture, changing attitudes toward the industry, and proximity to markets,
suppliers, and competitors. While in this case, because of a growing business, rising rental fees,
and quality time being lost in travel and traffic, Joseph needs to relocate his facility.
Joseph knew that he should give dedicated supervision and control to Facility B, so he spend
most of his daytime in Facility B, thus he cannot always catch up with crucial meetings at both the
office and Arya Marine, which could infect company in making right decisions and undermine the
benefits the company will get in the future. Meanwhile, the owner of Facility B doubled the rent.
Joseph thought the rent was too high and would definitely decrease the profit. What’s more,
travel in city cost a lot of time, as the production units were situated far from the downtown
area. This prolong the time period of each single business.

What is meant by a service factory?

What features does Joseph have in mind for the new facility?
A service factory is a facility that run as a service outlet and a production facility, and also
function as a showroom. The factory could serve as the hub of manufacturers’ efforts to get and
hold customers. Production workers and factory managers will be able to forge and sustain new
relationships with customers because they will be in direct and continuing contact with them.
Factories become service factories when their managers and workers understand customers’
needs as deeply and directly as they know their own products.
For the features for the new facility, Joseph wanted it to be close to the downtown area and
cluster along National Highway 66, so that the company could get more exposure to the public
and win over more clients who might ahead to its competitors and decrease the time costs on
traffic. What’s more, effective space utilization was also a concern. Joseph wanted this new
facility to have appropriate space in order to accommodate boats at peak time.

What organizational challenges does Joseph face in designing the new facility?
Will the new facility be a focused factory or an all-under-one-roof concept? Explain your
answer.
Clients want to have a vision of display of niche, but Summit Maritime's production facilities
cannot offer a presentable sight because different inventory were scattered around the facility.
So, Joseph had considered opening a retail outlet near NH66, where several upmarket
showrooms were clustered. The facility needed to have regulatory clearances for running as both
a service outlet and a production facility. However, it was not easy because, depending on the
type of business, production facilities needed to comply with the statutory requirements of the
pollution control board. Thus, the senior management expected the new facility to be in
accordance with pertinent factors as envisaged in the aftermath of the deliberations.
The new facility will be an all-under-one-roof concept. The location would increase the
company's visibility, as it was in the vicinity of Summit Maritime's target customers. It would save
travel time, an efficiency that Joseph could no longer ignore. The facility could function as both
production factory and a showroom. An additional boat could be accommodated, by partially or
fully utilizing the display space for finished products during peak demand times, which could save
floor space.

Design a layout for the new facility, and describe the characteristics of the layout.
Since Vallarpadam developed as an industrial cluster, gaining the special status of a port-based
economic zone, the supply-demand gap widened for properties located on Willingdon Island.
Also, the distance to NH66 of X1 and X2 comes to the top two among five locations. So, I would
choose the new facility from X3, X4 and X5. On the other hand, take rent into consideration, total
rent of three location is 7350, 18900 and 20250 respectively. So I would choose X3 for the new
facility. Here is my layout for X3.