Location of Warehouses and Customer Allocation in Supermarkets in Barranquilla, Colombia

Abstract

Distribution, location and routing systems have significant impacts on a company’s competitiveness, particularly with regard to transportation and service costs. Therefore, designing strategies to minimize costs is a recommended alternative for organizations. This paper presents a suggested routing and location scheme for distribution centers based on the use of linear programming algorithms and Gillet and Miller’s heuristics for a company that produces olive oil and sells it in supermarket chains in Barranquilla, Colombia. The implemented techniques reveal, as a result, the location and dimensioning of a single distribution center in the downtown area and not several, as expected. A recommendable routing for each client is also proposed