New Models for Commercial Territory Design

作     者：Angelica Salazar-Aguilar, Maria Rios-Mercado, Roger Z. Cabrera-Rios, Mauricio 

作者机构：Univ Autonoma Nuevo Leon Grad Program Syst Engn San Nicolas De Los Garza 66450 NL Mexico Univ Puerto Rico Dept Ind Engn Mayaguez PR 00681 USA 

出 版 物：《NETWORKS & SPATIAL ECONOMICS》 (Netw. Spat. Econ.)

年 卷 期：2011年第11卷第3期

页      面：487-507页

核心收录：

学科分类：1201[管理学-管理科学与工程(可授管理学、工学学位)] 08[工学] 0823[工学-交通运输工程] 0812[工学-计算机科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 

基　　金：Mexican National Council for Science and Technology [SEP-CONACYT 48499-Y] Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon [UANL-PAICYT CA1478-07, CE012-09, NL-2006-C09-32652] 

主　　题：Mixed-integer linear programming Integer quadratic programming Territory design Location Valid inequalities 

摘      要：In this work, a series of novel formulations for a commercial territory design problem motivated by a real-world case are proposed. The problem consists on determining a partition of a set of units located in a territory that meets multiple criteria such as compactness, connectivity, and balance in terms of customers and product demand. Thus far, different versions of this problem have been approached with heuristics due to its NP-completeness. The proposed formulations are integer quadratic programming models that involve a smaller number of variables than heretofore required. These models have also enabled the development of an exact solution framework, the first ever derived for this problem, that is based on branch and bound and a cut generation strategy. The proposed method is empirically evaluated using several instances of the new quadratic models as well as of the existing linear models. The results show that the quadratic models allow solving larger instances than the linear counterparts. The former were also observed to require fewer iterations of the exact method to converge. Based on these results the combination of the quadratic formulation and the exact method are recommended to approach problem instances associated with medium-sized cities.