Facility Location

Single-Facility Rectilinear Distance

Location Problem

 Locating a new facility among n existing facilities

– locating a warehouse that distributes merchandise to a
number of retail outlets
– locating a supplier that provides parts to a number of
different facilities
– locating a new piece of equipment that processes parts
that are subsequently sent downstream to a number of
different workstations
 Locate the new facility to minimize a weighted sum
of rectilinear distances measured from the new
facility to the existing facilities
Setting up the problem
mathematically

 Existing facilities are located at points (a1, b1), (a2,

b2), …, (an, bn)
 Find values of x and y (the location of the new
facility) to minimize
n
f ( x, y )   w ( x  a  y  b )
i i i
i 1

 Weights (wi) are included to allow for different

traffic rates between the new facility and the
existing facilities
Setting up the problem
mathematically (cont.)

 The values of x and y can be determined separately

f ( x, y )  g ( x )  g ( y )
1 2

n
g ( x)   w x  a
1 i i
i 1

n
g ( y)   w y  b
2 i i
i 1

 There is always an optimal solution with x equal to

some value of ai and y equal to some value of bi
(there may be other optimal solutions as well)
Some examples

 Two existing locations (5, 10) and (20, 30) and a

weight of 1 applied to each facility
– x can assume any value between 5 and 20 (g1(x) = 15)
– y can assume any value between 10 and 30 (g2(y) = 20)
 Four existing locations (3, 3), (6, 9), (12, 8), and
(12, 10) and a weight of 1 applied to each facility
– The median x value (half the x values lie above it and half
the x values lie below it) – in increasing order 3, 6, 12, 12
– any value of x between 6 and 12 is a median value and
is optimal (g1(x) = 15)
– The median y value – 3, 8, 9, 10 – any value of y between
8 and 9 is a median value and is optimal (g2(y) = 8)
The effect of weights

 Four existing machines in a job shop, (3, 3), (6, 9),

(12, 8), and (12, 10)
 Locate a new machine to minimize the total distance
traveled to transport material between this fifth
machine and the existing ones
 Assume there are on average 2, 4, 3, and 1
materials handling trips per hour, respectively, from
the existing machines to the new machine
 This is equivalent to one trip but with 2 machines at
location (3, 3), 4 machines at location (6, 9), 3
machines at location (12, 8) and the one machine at
location (12, 10)
The effect of weights (cont.)

 x locations in increasing order 3, 3, 6, 6, 6, 6, 12, 12, 12, 12 –

the median location is x = 6 (g1(x) = 30)
 y locations in increasing order 3, 3, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10 -
median location is any value of y on the interval [8, 9] (g 2(y)
= 16)
An easier way to determine the
median location
 Compute the cumulative weights - then determine the location or
locations corresponding to half of the cumulative weights
Machine x Coordinate Weight Cumulative Wght
one 3 2 2
two 6 4 6
three 12 3 9
four 12 1 10

Machine y Coordinate Weight Cumulative Wght

one 3 2 2
three 8 3 5
two 9 4 9
four 10 1 10
Example problem

 University of the Far West has purchased equipment

that permits faculty to prepare cd’s of lectures. The
equipment will be used by faculty from six schools on
campus: business, education, engineering,
humanities, law, and science. The coordinates of the
schools and the number of faculty that are anticipated
to use the equipment are shown on the next slide.
The campus is laid out with large grassy areas
separating the buildings and walkways are mainly
east-west or north-south, so that distances between
buildings are rectilinear. The university planner
would like to locate the new facility so as to minimize
the total travel time of all faculty planning to use it.
Example problem (cont.)

School Campus Location Number of

Faculty Using
Equipment
Business (5, 13) 31

Education (8, 18) 28

Engineering (0, 0) 19

Humanities (6, 3) 53

Law (14, 20) 32

Science (10, 12) 41

Single-Facility Straight-line
Distance Location Problem

 Minimize electrical cable when locating power-

generation facilities or reaching the greatest
number of customers with cellphone tower
locations
 Objective is to minimize straight-line (Euclidean)
distance
n
f ( x, y )   wi  x  ai  2  ( y  bi ) 2
i 1

 Determining the optimal solution mathematically is

more difficult than for either rectilinear or squared
straight-line distance (gravity problem)
The Gravity Problem

 The objective is to minimize the square of the straight-line distance

 
n
f ( x, y )   wi  x  ai   ( y  bi ) 2
2

i 1
 Differentiating and setting the partial derivatives equal to zero

n n

wa i i wb i i
x 
* i 1
n
y 
* i 1
n

w
i 1
i w
i 1
i

 Physical model - map, weights, "balance point" on map

 University of the Far West example
The Straight-line Distance Problem

 Iterative solution process

 Use (x*, y*) calculated from gravity problem to determine initial g i(x, y)

n n

 a g  x, y 
i i  b g  x, y 
i i
x i 1
n
y i 1
n wi
g i ( x, y ) 
 g  x, y 
i 1
i  g  x, y 
i 1
i  x  ai  2  ( y  bi ) 2
 Recompute gi(x, y) using the new values of x and y
 Continue to iterate until the values of the coordinates converge
(procedure yields optimal solution as long as (x, y) at each iteration does
not converge to an existing location)
 Physical model – supported map with holes, ring, strings, weights
 University of the Far West example