Solving Facility Location and Supply Chain Management Problems Using Modified Population-Based TP-AB Algorithm

Locating optimal supply/ storage/ distribution facilities is critical in minimizing the establishment, transportation and distribution costs. This paper proposes one model for estimating the facility centres based on any specific criterion. A modified TP-AB algorithm solves the popular "Mini-Sum" and "Mini-Max" facility location problems by considering 36 European countries. The required population and Gross Domestic Product per capita data for the years 2013, 2018 and 2023 are extracted from the European Union portal. Capital cities of these 36 countries are taken as the representative demand points in the supply chain network and facility centres are located using unweighted and weighted Great Circle Distance. Since the data points are spread over the Earth's surface, Great Circle Distance is preferred over Euclidean Distance. It is observed that the “population centre”, “economic centre" and the "access centre" do not merge showing the variations in the population spread and economic strength among the European countries considered.  Also, the feasibility of grouping the countries into any number of clusters based on the need is demonstrated.