Allocating servers to facilities, when demand is elastic to travel and waiting times

Vladimir Marianov; Miguel Rios; Francisco Javier Barros

RAIRO - Operations Research (2006)

  • Volume: 39, Issue: 3, page 143-162
  • ISSN: 0399-0559

Abstract

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Public inoculation centers are examples of facilities providing service to customers whose demand is elastic to travel and waiting time. That is, people will not travel too far, or stay in line for too long to obtain the service. The goal, when planning such services, is to maximize the demand they attract, by locating centers and staffing them so as to reduce customers' travel time and time spent in queue. In the case of inoculation centers, the goal is to maximize the people that travel to the centers and stay in line until inoculated. We propose a procedure for the allocation of multiple servers to centers, so that this goal is achieved. An integer programming model is formulated. Since demand is elastic, a supply-demand equilibrium equation must be explicitly included in the optimization model, which then becomes nonlinear. As there are no exact procedures to solve such problems, we propose a heuristic procedure, based on Heuristic Concentration, which finds a good solution to this problem. Numerical examples are presented.

How to cite

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Marianov, Vladimir, Rios, Miguel, and Barros, Francisco Javier. "Allocating servers to facilities, when demand is elastic to travel and waiting times." RAIRO - Operations Research 39.3 (2006): 143-162. <http://eudml.org/doc/105328>.

@article{Marianov2006,
abstract = { Public inoculation centers are examples of facilities providing service to customers whose demand is elastic to travel and waiting time. That is, people will not travel too far, or stay in line for too long to obtain the service. The goal, when planning such services, is to maximize the demand they attract, by locating centers and staffing them so as to reduce customers' travel time and time spent in queue. In the case of inoculation centers, the goal is to maximize the people that travel to the centers and stay in line until inoculated. We propose a procedure for the allocation of multiple servers to centers, so that this goal is achieved. An integer programming model is formulated. Since demand is elastic, a supply-demand equilibrium equation must be explicitly included in the optimization model, which then becomes nonlinear. As there are no exact procedures to solve such problems, we propose a heuristic procedure, based on Heuristic Concentration, which finds a good solution to this problem. Numerical examples are presented. },
author = {Marianov, Vladimir, Rios, Miguel, Barros, Francisco Javier},
journal = {RAIRO - Operations Research},
keywords = {Facility location; resource allocation; nonlinear optimization; integer programming; heuristics.; facility location; nonlinear optimization; heuristics},
language = {eng},
month = {1},
number = {3},
pages = {143-162},
publisher = {EDP Sciences},
title = {Allocating servers to facilities, when demand is elastic to travel and waiting times},
url = {http://eudml.org/doc/105328},
volume = {39},
year = {2006},
}

TY - JOUR
AU - Marianov, Vladimir
AU - Rios, Miguel
AU - Barros, Francisco Javier
TI - Allocating servers to facilities, when demand is elastic to travel and waiting times
JO - RAIRO - Operations Research
DA - 2006/1//
PB - EDP Sciences
VL - 39
IS - 3
SP - 143
EP - 162
AB - Public inoculation centers are examples of facilities providing service to customers whose demand is elastic to travel and waiting time. That is, people will not travel too far, or stay in line for too long to obtain the service. The goal, when planning such services, is to maximize the demand they attract, by locating centers and staffing them so as to reduce customers' travel time and time spent in queue. In the case of inoculation centers, the goal is to maximize the people that travel to the centers and stay in line until inoculated. We propose a procedure for the allocation of multiple servers to centers, so that this goal is achieved. An integer programming model is formulated. Since demand is elastic, a supply-demand equilibrium equation must be explicitly included in the optimization model, which then becomes nonlinear. As there are no exact procedures to solve such problems, we propose a heuristic procedure, based on Heuristic Concentration, which finds a good solution to this problem. Numerical examples are presented.
LA - eng
KW - Facility location; resource allocation; nonlinear optimization; integer programming; heuristics.; facility location; nonlinear optimization; heuristics
UR - http://eudml.org/doc/105328
ER -

References

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