Andreas Klose – författare

The book provides a comprehensive overview of mathematical optimization models and techniques for solving facility location problems. It equips students with the theoretical foundations and practical knowledge needed to analyze real‑world location planning problems, as well as to use and adapt optimization models and methods suited for these tasks. To support this, the book offers detailed explanations of the optimization theory underlying the methods used to solve the presented location problems. In particular, it discusses Lagrangian relaxation and duality, subgradient optimization, column generation, and Benders’ decomposition in substantial depth.Each chapter concludes with a set of exercises, some of which take the form of case studies that, while fictitious, reflect realistic applications. The book is further supplemented by a Python package, pyloa. At the end of each chapter, examples show how classes and routines from this package can be applied to solve selected location problems introduced in the chapter.This book is intended for graduate students in operations research, applied mathematics, mathematics‑economics, industrial engineering, and business administration with a focus on analytics or quantitative methods. It is also a valuable resource for university instructors designing 5–15 ECTS courses on location‑planning optimization, as well as for researchers and practitioners seeking a thorough introduction to optimisation models and methods for facility location planning.

The complexity of distribution systems is augmented by various trends: globalization of the manufacturing industry, rising customer demands, and the reverse flows within closed-loop systems. In this light, the need for advanced planning methods that are based on quantitative optimization is constantly increasing. This book takes up the challenges posed by these developments. In doing so, it presents recent results and case studies from a group of researchers that regularly meet at the IWDL (International Workshop on Distribution Logistics). The text covers the design of distribution networks, vehicle routing, warehousing and reverse logistics. It also contains a comprehensive review of more than 60 case studies in reverse logistics.

Increasing customer needs, the globalization of markets and the evolution of e-commerce add to the complexity of logistic processes. In today's business, it is well understood that an effective management of logistic processes is impossible without the use of computer-based tools and quantitative methods. This book presents in a systematic way quantitative approaches to distribution logistics and supply chain management. The main orientation of the book is towards practical problem solving, and numerous case studies and practical applications are presented. The topics covered include: supply chain management, revers logistics, e-commerce, facility location and network planning, vehicle routing, warehousing, inventory control.