A location-allocation heuristic (LAH) for facility location problems

Abstract

This paper presents a new location-allocation heuristic (LAH) applied to facility location problems. Such approach is based on clustering and its main objective is to find out a facility (object) in a space by minimizing a function. The LAH developed throughout this work was employed in two problems: the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP) and the Capacitated p-Median Problems (CPMP) with the purpose of a possible integration to Geographic Information Systems (GIS). A set of test problems (instances) was chosen to validate the LAH. Good computational results were obtained for small and large-scale MCLP instances and for small CPMP instances. These results demonstrate that LAH, being quick and fast, may be usefully applicable to GIS.

Location-allocation heuristic; capacitated p-median problems; maximal covering location problem; local search