Location Problems with Distribution Capacity and Time Limitations

Locational decisions are generally considered strategical level decisions. Hence, location problems received a large concern in the literature. There are several factors like: distances, demand amounts, facility capacities etc. that may affect the locational decisions. Most studies in the literature had considered these factors. However, there are few studies which considers distribution capacities of the production systems. Today, especially service production systems such as fast-food producers declare a time limit in their delivery operations. In such systems, the distribution capacities and distribution time limits should be considered in location problems. In this study, it is aimed at investigate several realistic versions of location problems with distribution capacity and time limits, formulate these problems as optimization problems and develop exact/heuristic solution methods for those problems. In this study, two distribution capacitated locational problem type had been developed. Type-1 is distribution capacitated version of well-known p-center problem on the other hand, type-2 is distribution capacitated version of well-known maximum-covering problem. MIP models and heuristic algorithms had been developed for both type of the problem. After that, computed results are compared and findings had been presented in conclusion section. In addition, a real life case study had been done too. Keywords: location optimization, distribution capacities, p-center, maximum covering.