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Organisation

Location and Distribution

Research Group

Lifecycle:1 Jan 1970 →  31 Dec 2001
Organisation profile:

The interest of the research unit is in optimal location problems, i.e. any question calling for the determination of the position of some objects in an optimal way with respect to the position of other fixed objects they will interact with. Such problems arise in regional and urban planning, private and public sector management, facility layout, production planning, supply chain management, statistics, data analysis, etc. The main emphasis lies on developing adequate mathematical models, their theoretical study and the design of efficient algorithms for solving the models to optimality. Several fields of expertise in this area are particularly represented, such as: 1. Location of undesirable facilities, like polluting plants, in order to minimise their effects on the population; 2. Location of retail facilities in the presence of competing facilities, in order to maximise the market share; 3. Location of distribution centres in order to minimise distribution costs. Directly related topics of enquiry are: 1. The design of distribution systems, including the routing aspects; 2. Optimal location of undesirable facilities taking into account the spatial dispersion of effects like pollution, fire, heat, etc.; 3. Optimal location of competitive facilities in view of spatial consumer behaviour, e.g. with respect to retailer choice; 4. Automatic data classification.

Keywords:Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, Facilities, Planning, Business Software
Disciplines:Economics and business