A Variational Inequality-Based Location-Allocation Algorithm for Locating Multiple Interactive Facilities

Abstract

Multi-source Weber problem (MWP) is an important model in facility location, which has wide applications in various areas such as health service management, transportation system management, urban planning, etc. The location-allocation algorithm is a well-known method for solving MWP, which consists of a location phase and an allocation phase at each iteration. In this paper, we consider more general and practical case of MWP–the constrained multi-source location problem (CMSLP), i.e., the location of multiple facilities with considering interactive transportation between facilities, locational constraints on facilities and the gauge for measuring distances. A variational inequality approach is contributed to solving the location subproblem called the constrained multi-facility location problem (CMFLP) in location phase, which leads to an efficient projection-type method. Then a new location-allocation algorithm is developed for CMSLP. Global convergence of the projection-type method as well as local convergence of new location-allocation algorithm are proved. The efficiency of proposed methods is verified by some preliminary numerical results.