THE MAXIMIZING MARKET-SIZE DISCRETIONARY FACILITY LOCATION PROBLEM WITH CONGESTION

In this paper we consider the problem of locating discretionary service facilities on a network while accounting for these facilities' finite capacities. It is assumed that customers travelling on preplanned tours may deviate from these tours to visit a discretionary service facility. However, the number of customers who travel to a facility is a decreasing function of the deviation distance, which is the additional distance incurred as a result of deviating from the tour, plus the time spent in the service facility (including possible waiting time). The paper presents a scheme designed to calculate the expected number of customers who travel to a single facility. Given a set of finite locations, this scheme can be used to find the single optimal location. For problems with more than one facility, a location-allocation heuristic algorithm is provided.