A two-step clustering method for facility location problem

Abstract

Facility location problems are designed with the objective to gain more profit. The profit can be gained when the maximum demand is satisfied. The demand can be satisfied when maximum number of customers are covered or served. To attain maximum number of customers, various approaches have been investigated. In general, most of the approaches consider for the facility location models based on radius as a service area of facility. Therefore, such facilities which fulfil their service in a radius can be served by conventional approach. However, conventional approaches fail to allocate those facilities which are not inclined by topographical and road network barriers. In this paper, we propose a model to optimise facility allocation in such scenarios. In the propose model, we have used a two-step clustering approach to solve the facility location problem. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed algorithm based on density affinity propagation (DAP) for the facility location problem can be used to construct a solution for maximal service and covering area.