Lab 6 - Location-Allocation Modeling

Lab 6 introduced us to location-allocation, including a Network Analyst Tutorial Exercise, followed by a more in-depth analysis using provided data. The scenario for our analysis was a company that wanted to look at how it's distribution centers were assigned to market areas. Using Network Analyst we would create a model to optimize the reassignment of market areas to distribution centers to better serve the majority of customers in each market.

First was adding our facilities, demand points, and setting analysis properties to Minimize Impedance. Solving the analysis showed which customers were connected to which facilities. Inspection of the results showed some customers might be better served by a different distribution center within a different market area. By using spatial joins, Summary Statistics, and table joins, I was able to identify the highest frequencies of facilities to market areas based on demand and reassign market areas to reflect which distribution center was responsible for the majority of customers in each area.

Location-allocation models allow for information to be added to further improve or change the analysis. For example, in this scenario, some market areas contained customers that were serviced by more than one distribution center, which created a duplicate market area value. It could be beneficial to divide the market areas down to account for those situations and provide better service to all customers. Also, weight could be added to the demand points to account for different levels of customer importance.

Map comparing original market areas and new market area assignments after analysis.