Zvi Drezner – författare

Facility location applications are concerned with the location of one or more facilities in a way that optimizes a certain objective such as mini­ mizing transportation cost, providing equitable service to customers, cap­ turing the largest market share, etc. Facility location problems give rise to challenging geometrical and combinatorial problems. The research on facility location problems spans many research fields such as operations re­ search/management science, industrial engineering, geography, economics, computer science, mathematics, marketing, electrical engineering, urban planning, and related fields. Applications to facility location models abound. Location of warehouses, plants, hospitals, retail outlets are classical examples. Applications are also found in the location of electronical components, warning sirens, sprinklers, radar beams, exploratory oil wells. These are less obvious "facilities". One should consider applying a location model to any scenario that involves finding a best location (or locations) for any object(s). This book Facility Location: A Survey of Applications and Methods pro­ vides a state of the art review along with references to important contem­ porary topics in locational analysis. The book includes twenty chapters divided into four parts, each dealing with a different aspect of location modeling and implementation. The book concludes with over 1,200 refer­ ences. The first part Methodology and Analysis consists of a survey of method­ ological and technical aspects of location analysis. Issues such as estimating distances, the error introduced by assuming discrete demand rather than continuous one, global optimization techniques, inference of weights, con­ jugate duality, and using Voronoi diagrams are reviewed.

Facility location applications are concerned with the location of one or more facilities in a way that optimizes a certain objective such as mini­ mizing transportation cost, providing equitable service to customers, cap­ turing the largest market share, etc. Facility location problems give rise to challenging geometrical and combinatorial problems. The research on facility location problems spans many research fields such as operations re­ search/management science, industrial engineering, geography, economics, computer science, mathematics, marketing, electrical engineering, urban planning, and related fields. Applications to facility location models abound. Location of warehouses, plants, hospitals, retail outlets are classical examples. Applications are also found in the location of electronical components, warning sirens, sprinklers, radar beams, exploratory oil wells. These are less obvious "facilities". One should consider applying a location model to any scenario that involves finding a best location (or locations) for any object(s). This book Facility Location: A Survey of Applications and Methods pro­ vides a state of the art review along with references to important contem­ porary topics in locational analysis. The book includes twenty chapters divided into four parts, each dealing with a different aspect of location modeling and implementation. The book concludes with over 1,200 refer­ ences. The first part Methodology and Analysis consists of a survey of method­ ological and technical aspects of location analysis. Issues such as estimating distances, the error introduced by assuming discrete demand rather than continuous one, global optimization techniques, inference of weights, con­ jugate duality, and using Voronoi diagrams are reviewed.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a book on location analysis which - contains most of the main stream topics, - could be used for teaching purposes, - could be used for self study or reference, - would motivate the material not only by reviewing the theoretical results, but also by giving some of the practieal success stories using location theory as model for problems in industry and management science? As the reader may guess, this question is a rhetoric one - sure it would be niee to have such a book, and many who want to leam about the subject or teach corresponding courses in university departments of mathematics, man­ agement science, computer science, geography, civil engineering, etc. would be likely users of such a book. Practitioners who want to find out, whether one of their problems can be solved with one of the location tools would love to get a quiek overview of what is available in this area. Researchers could use the book to check whether there is any new literat ure on a location subject they would want to work on. This book is an attempt to satisfy this wish list. We were lucky enough to find many of the most prominent researchers and practitioners in the world, who contributed 14 chapters to a book in which the largest part of the location area is covered. A most up-to-date collection of references is provided at the end of each chapter.