Facilities lay-out notes

IELM 4200
Facilities Layout and Material Handling
Topic 3: Facility Location Models
Dr. Emily Au

Introduction to Facility Location
• The sole consideration of facility location is transportation cost
• Examples of facility location problems
– Public services including airport, schools, hospitals, fire stations, ambulance bases, etc.
– Addition of a new workstation
– Warehouse location

Topic 03: Facility Location Models

IELM 4200, Fall 2013

2

Introduction to Facility Location
• Objectives of facility location
– Minimize average travel distance (warehouse)
– Minimize the maximal distance from a demand (ambulance)
– Cover a maximal amount of demand (grocery store)

• Questions need to be answered
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How many facilities to locate?
Where to locate?
How large are the facilities?
How should demand be allocated to the facilities?

Topic 03: Facility Location Models

IELM 4200, Fall 2013

3

Examples of Single Facility Location
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New lathe in a job shop
Tool crib in a factory
New warehouse
New airport, hospital, fire station, police station
New classroom building on a college campus
Component in an electrical network
New appliance in a kitchen
Copying machine in a library
New component on a control panel
……

Topic 03: Facility Location Models

IELM 4200, Fall 2013

4

Problem Classifications
• Planar location vs. Network location
– Planar location: facilities may be located anywhere on the plane – Network location: assume that demands occur only on a network composed of nodes and links, and that facilities can only be located on the network

• Distance between two points (x1,y1), (x2,y2)
– Rectilinear distance d = | x1 - x2 | + | y1 - y 2 |
– Euclidean distance
d=