The Weber problem in logistic and services networks under congestion

Abstract

We investigate a location-allocation-routing problem where trucks deliver goods from a central production facility to a set of warehouses with fixed locations and known demands. Due to limited capacities congestion occurs and results in queueing problems. The location of the center is determined to maximize the utilization of the given resources (measured in throughput) and the minimal number of trucks is determined to satisfy the overall demand generated by the warehouses. Main results for this integrated decision problem on strategic and tactical/operational level are: (i) The location decision is reduced to a standard Weber problem with weighted distances. (ii) The joint decision for location and fleet size is separable. (iii) The location of the center is robust against perturbations of several system parameters on the operational/tactical level. Additionally, we consider minimization of travel times as optimization target. By numerical examples we demonstrate the consequences of neglecting available information on long-term (rough) demand structure.

Keywords

• Weber problem
• Facility location
• Gordon-Newell network
• Throughput optimization
• Steady state analysis
• Travel times