Optimal Location of Distribution Site Based on Distance

For most companies, successful business operation is based on the location at the right place, in the right region, on the right plot. New investments in land, buildings and material handling equipment are carried out for the longer term. As the global business environment in which a company needs to decide on location is becoming more uncertain every day, it is of huge importance to make a thoughtful and ‘future-proof’ decision on the location for a new distribution site. Allocation can also be defined as a process that results in finding a position for a warehouse, company, production, people, things, and activities in a specific area. A newly built distribution site is impossible to be moved in a short period of time, so the decision on where to build a distribution site, warehouse, or manufacturing plant is of vital and strategic importance.

Multi-Criteria Location Model of Emergency Shelters in Humanitarian Logistics

Natural disasters can cause serious casualties and economic losses, and emergency shelters are effective measures to reduce disaster risks and protect lives. At present, the location models of refuge facilities often ignore the diversion of shelter from the perspective of humanitarian logistics and the needs of victims. Such models also seldom consider the impact of the pre-storage of relief materials on the location of shelters. In this study, on the basis of the different needs of disaster victims, shelters are divided into two types—basic life and psychological medical service guarantees. While considering the full coverage of shelter needs, capacities, and budget constraints, the shelter distance, the optimized distribution of refugees, and the pre-stock quantity of goods are optimized. The facility service quality is optimized on the basis of qualitative factors. This study proposes a multi-standard constrained site selection model to optimize the pre-disaster shelter site-allocation problem. The model is helpful for decision makers to influence shelter siting and victims’ allocating process through their expertise and to obtain a solution that compromises multiple objectives. In this study, several basic cases are generated from the actual data of certain areas in Sichuan Province, a disaster-prone region in China, to verify the effectiveness of the model.

An explorative study of municipal developer competitions in Helsinki

This paper discusses the central features of so-called ‘site allocation competitions’, as organized by the City of Helsinki Real Estate Department (Kiinteistövirasto in Finnish). Site allocation competitions are developer competitions where the municipality sells or leases plots of land to developers or contractors, but where the ‘bidding’ is based on competing on the basis of architectural and urban quality factors. The focus in this paper is on the Finnish context, but as its legal framework is constituted by European competition law. In these competitions the proprietor expects the contractor or developer to create a design team and in turn the proprietor receives multiple proposals for a site without really paying for them. It seems important to examine this rather new type of architectural competition, as it is often an integral part of important large projects in terms of both financial investments and architectural design. It also constitutes a new tool in the practices of urban planning. The present study is explorative, based mainly on a close study and analysis of written material, such as reports, as well as three interviews with experienced organizers. The aim of the paper is to clarify the concept of developer competition, and discuss its possible benefits and problems. The core issue in the study is how architectural quality is produced within the legal framework, as well as to discuss the relation of the developer competition to the aims of urban planning and professional agents.