Since the classical work “Theory of the Location of Industries” of Weber from 1909, the determination of an optimal location of a new facility with respect to existing customers is strongly connected to strategical logistics planning. Strategic decisions concerning the location of facilities as production plants, distribution centers or warehouses are of high importance for the rentability of supply chains. Thoroughly carried out, location planning allows an efficient flow of materials and leads to lower costs and increased customer service.

Subject of the course is an introduction to the most important terms and definitions in location planning as well as the presentation of basic quantitative location planning models. Furthermore, specialized location planning models for Supply Chain Management will be addressed as they are part in many commercial SCM tools for strategic planning tasks.

Outline:

• Introduction
• Methods of Location Evaluation
• Classical Facility Location:
  o    Planar (continuous) models
  o    Network models
  o    Discrete models
• Location models in SCM:
  o    Single-period models
  o    Multi-period

• Daskin: Network and Discrete Location: Models, Algorithms, and Applications, Wiley, 1995
• Domschke, Drexl: Logistik: Standorte, Springer, 1996
• Francis, McGinnis, White: Facility Layout and Location: An Analytical Approach, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 1992
• Love, Morris, Wesolowsky: Facilities Location: Models and Methods, North Holland, 1988
• Thonemann: Operations Management - Konzepte, Methoden und Anwendungen, Pearson Studium, 2005