Doctoral Degrees (Logistics)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Logistics) by Author "Heyns, Andries M."

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    A multi-objective approach towards geospatial facility location
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03) Heyns, Andries M.; Van Vuuren, Jan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Logistics
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Applications of the sub-discipline of location science within the larger discipline of operations research include the location of important facilities, such as hospitals, re stations, libraries and depots. Existing facility location resolution techniques are generally based on commercial and transportation modelling criteria with little or no consideration given to the characteristics and in uence of surrounding terrain. Recent technological advances have, however, resulted in a sub- eld of location science rapidly increasing in popularity | the eld of geospatial facility location. Geospatial facility location science places a strong emphasis on terrain and environmental factors in the search for suitable sites for facilities with complex location requirements. Examples of such facilities include radars, telecommunication towers, watchtowers and wind turbines. The applications in which geospatial facility location solution approaches are relevant generally include only one type of facility. As a result, problem-speci c solution approaches tailored to the speci c facility type considered are usually adopted. On closer inspection, however, the solution approaches followed for these facility location problems reveal striking similarities which may be exploited in a generic manner in order to provide more e cient solution tradeo alternatives. By removing the problem-speci c approach to facility location modelling and the design of the associated solution techniques, there is an opportunity to develop a generic, dynamically implementable geospatial facility location framework which may be applied to identify facility location trade-o alternatives in various applications. Moreover, networks of multiple facility types may be considered in such a framework | something that is a rarity in the current geospatial facility location literature. In view of the continual advancement of technology, a generic geospatial facility location framework may even prove to be applicable to future facility location problems in which the placement criteria are currently unknown. The design of a generic geospatial facility location framework is therefore pursued in this dissertation. A dynamic mathematical foundation, which eliminates facility-specific solution methodologies, is established. A computerised concept demonstrator based on this framework is implemented within a generic solution paradigm. This concept demonstrator accommodates as special cases a variety of popular facility location problems from the literature. The geospatial facility location framework is demonstrated to be a dynamic and useful tool for solving complex facility location problems that have not previously been encountered due to the limitations of problem-specific solution search designs.