Designing Reliable Center Systems: A Vector Assignment Center Location Problem. Issue 4 (12th April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lei, Ting L.
• Is Part Of: Geographical analysis. Volume 48:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 411
• Page End: 426
• Publication Date: 2016-04-12
• Subjects: Geography -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 910.00182
• DOI: 10.1111/gean.12101
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0016-7363

Abstract

Abstract : The p‐center problem is one of the most important models in location theory. Its objective is to place a fixed number of facilities so that the maximum service distance for all customers is as small as possible. This article develops a reliable p‐center problem that can account for system vulnerability and facility failure. A basic assumption is that located centers can fail with a given probability and a customer will fall back to the closest nonfailing center for service. The proposed model seeks to minimize the expected value of the maximum service distance for a service system. In addition, the proposed model is general and can be used to solve other fault‐tolerant center location problems such as the (p, q)‐center problem using appropriate assignment vectors. I present an integer programming formulation of the model and computational experiments, and then conclude with a summary of findings and point out possible future work.