Determination of the geographical location of a central facility

Abstract

Central facility location models are mostly used in logistics and transport networks to find the optimal position of a central warehouse, distribution centre or terminal. These models usually minimize the total transportation or distribution costs, which are based on the costs per unit, transport volumes and distances between existing customers and future center. This paper analyses the different possibilities for determining the distances between customers and the central facility. The coordinates of existing facilities (customers) and a suitable coordinate system are the default inputs for solving. The distance can be expressed by different ways e.g. direct, corrected, rectangular or quadratic. This expression is usually sufficient for relative short distances (tens to hundreds km) in planar space. In the case of longer distances, the curvature of the earth´s surface should be considered. The paper deals with the possibility of using the geographical coordinates and orthodromic distance in location models. Authors focus on simple and practical solving with the use of commonly available software applications. The accuracy of the different distance calculations will be compared.