Combining Geographic Information Systems for Transportation and Mixed Integer Linear Programming in Facility Location-Allocation Problems

Silvia Maria Santana Mapa¹, Renato da Silva Lima²

¹Federal Office for Education, Science and Technology of Minas Gerais, Congonhas, Brazil.
²Federal University of Itajuba, Industrial Engineering and Management Institute, Itajubá, Brazil.

DOI: 10.4236/jsea.2014.710076                

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to assess the solution quality for location-allocation problems from facilities generated by the software TransCAD^® , a Geographic Information System for Transportation (GIS-T). Such facilities were obtained after using two routines together: Facility Location and Transportation Problem, when compared with optimal solutions from exact mathematical models, based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP), developed externally for the GIS. The models were applied to three simulations: the first one proposes opening factories and customer allocation in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil; the second involves a wholesaler and a study of location and allocation of distribution centres for retail customers; and the third one involves the location of day-care centers and allocation of demand (0 - 3 years old children). The results showed that when considering facility capacity, the MILP optimising model presents results up to 37% better than the GIS and proposes different locations to open new facilities.

Keywords

Geographic Information Systems for Transportation, Location-Allocation Problems, Mixed Integer Linear Programming, Transportation, TransCAD^®

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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