CHAPTER 8

Location Planning and Analysis

McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 The Need for Location Decisions
• Location decisions arise for a variety of reasons:
• Addition of new facilities
• As part of a marketing strategy to expand markets
• Growth in demand that cannot be satisfied by expanding existing
facilities
• Depletion of basic inputs requires relocation
• Shift in markets
• Cost of doing business at a particular location makes relocation
attractive

8-2
 Location Decisions:
Strategically Important
• Location decisions:
• Are closely tied to an organization’s strategies
• Low-cost
• Convenience to attract market share
• Effect capacity and flexibility
• Represent a long-term commitment of resources
• Effect investment requirements, operating costs, revenues, and
operations
• Impact competitive advantage
• Importance to supply chains

Instructor Slides 8-3

 Location Decisions: Objectives
• Location decisions are based on:
• Profit potential or cost and customer service
• Finding a number of acceptable locations from which to choose
• Position in the supply chain
• End: accessibility, consumer demographics, traffic patterns, and local customs
are important
• Middle: locate near suppliers or markets
• Beginning: locate near the source of raw materials
• Web-based retail organizations are effectively location independent

Instructor Slides 8-4

 Supply Chain Considerations
• Supply chain management must address supply chain
configuration:
• Number and location of suppliers, production facilities, warehouses
and distribution centers
• Centralized vs. decentralized distribution
• The importance of such decisions is underscored by their
reflection of the basic strategy for accessing customer
markets

Instructor Slides 8-5

 Location: Options
• Existing companies generally have four options available
in location planning:
1. Expand an existing facility
2. Add new locations while retaining existing facilities
3. Shut down one location and move to another
4. Do nothing

Instructor Slides 8-6

 Global Location: Facilitating Factors
• Two key factors have contributed to the attractiveness of
globalization:
• Trade Agreements such as
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade (GATT)
• U.S.-China Trade Relations Act
• EU and WTO efforts to facilitate trade
• Technology
• Advances in communication and information technology

Instructor Slides 8-7

 Global Location: Benefits
• A wide range of benefits have accrued to organizations
that have globalized operations:
• Markets
• Cost savings
• Legal and regulatory
• Financial
• Other

Instructor Slides 8-8

 Global Location: Disadvantages
• There are a number of disadvantages that may arise
when locating globally:
• Transportation costs
• Security costs
• Unskilled labor
• Import restrictions
• Criticism for locating out-of-country

Instructor Slides 8-9

 Global Location: Risks
• Organizations locating globally should be aware of
potential risk factors related to:
• Political instability and unrest
• Terrorism
• Economic instability
• Legal regulation
• Ethical considerations
• Cultural differences

Instructor Slides 8-10

 Managing Global Operations
• Managerial implications for global operations:
• Language and cultural differences
• Risk of miscommunication
• Development of trust
• Different management styles
• Corruption and bribery
• Increased travel (and related) costs
• Challenges associated with managing far-flung operations
• Level of technology and resistance to technological change
• Domestic personnel may resist locating, even temporarily

Instructor Slides 8-11

 Location Decision: General Procedure
• Steps:
1. Decide on the criteria to use for evaluating location
alternatives
2. Identify important factors, such as location of markets or
raw materials
3. Develop location alternatives
a. Identify the country or countries for location
b. Identify the general region for location
c. Identify a small number of community alternatives
d. Identify the site alternatives among the community
alternatives
4. Evaluate the alternatives and make a decision

Instructor Slides 8-12

 Location: Identifying a Country
Factors relating to foreign locations
Government a. Policies on foreign ownership of production facilities
Local content requirements
Import restrictions
Currency restrictions
Environment regulations
Local product standards
Liability laws
b. Stability issues

Cultural differences Living circumstances for foreign workers and their dependents
Ways of doing business
Religious holidays/traditions

Customer preferences Possible “buy locally” sentiment

Labor Level of training and education of workers

Work ethic
Wage rates
Possible regulations limiting the number of foreign employees
Language differences

Resources Availability and quality of raw materials, energy, transportation infrastructure

Financial Financial incentives, tax rates, inflation rates, interest rates

Technological Rate of technological change, rate of innovations

Market Market potential, competition

Instructor Slides
Safety Crime, terrorism threat
8-13
 Location: Identifying a Region
• Primary regional factors:
• Location of raw materials
• Necessity
• Perishability
• Transportation costs
• Location of markets
• As part of a profit-oriented company’s competitive strategy
• So not-for-profits can meet the needs of their service users
• Distribution costs and perishability

Instructor Slides 8-14

 Location: Identifying a Region (contd.)
 Labor factors
Cost of labor
Availability of suitably skilled workers
Wage rates in the area
Labor productivity
Attitudes toward work
Whether unions pose a serious potential problem
 Other factors
Climate and taxes may play an important role in location decisions

Instructor Slides 8-15

 Location: Identifying a Community
 Many communities actively attempt to attract new businesses
they perceive to be a good fit for the community
 Businesses also actively seek attractive communities based
on such factors such as:
 Quality of life
 Services
 Attitudes
 Taxes
 Environmental regulations
 Utilities
 Development support

Instructor Slides 8-16

 Location: Identifying a Site
• Primary site location considerations are
• Land
• Transportation
• Zoning
• Other restrictions

Instructor Slides 8-17

 Multiple Plant Manufacturing Strategies
• Organizing operations
• Product plant strategy
• Entire products or product lines are produced in separate plants, and
each plant usually supplies the entire domestic market
• Market area plant strategy
• Plants are designated to serve a particular geographic segment of the
market
• Plants produce most, if not all, of a company’s products

Instructor Slides 8-18

Multiple Plant Manufacturing Strategies
• Organizing operations
• Process plant strategy
• Different plants focus on different aspects of a process
• automobile manufacturers – engine plant, body stamping plant, etc.
• Coordination across the system becomes a significant issue
• General-purpose plant strategy
• Plants are flexible and capable of handling a range of products

Instructor Slides 8-19

 Service and Retail Locations
• Considerations:
• Nearness to raw materials is not usually a consideration
• Customer access is a
• Prime consideration for some: restaurants, hotels, etc.
• Not an important consideration for others: service call centers, etc.
• Tend to be profit or revenue driven, and so are
• Concerned with demographics, competition, traffic/volume patterns,
and convenience
• Clustering
• Similar types of businesses locate near one another

Instructor Slides 8-20

 Evaluating Location Alternatives
• Common techniques:
• Locational cost-volume-profit analysis
• Transportation model
• Factor rating
• Center of gravity method

Instructor Slides 8-21

Locational Cost-Profit-Volume Analysis

• For a cost analysis, compute the total cost for each alternative
location:

Total Cost  FC  v  Q
where
FC  Fixed cost
v  Variable cost per unit
Q  Quantity or volume of output

Instructor Slides 8-22

 Example:
Cost-Profit-Volume Analysis
• Fixed and variable costs for four potential plant locations
are shown below:

Fixed Cost Variable Cost

Location per Year per Unit
A $250,000 $11
B $100,000 $30
C $150,000 $20
D $200,000 $35

Instructor Slides 8-23

 Example: Cost-Profit-Volume Analysis
Plot of Location Total Costs

Instructor Slides 8-24

 Example: Cost-Profit-Volume Analysis
• Range approximations
• B Superior (up to 4,999 units)
Total Cost of C  Total Cost of B
150,000  20Q  100,000  30Q
50,000  10Q
Q  5,000
• C Superior (>5,000 to 11,111 units)

Total Cost of A  Total Cost of C

250,000  11Q  150,000  20Q
100,000  9Q
• A superior (11,112 units and up)
Q  11,111 .11

Instructor Slides 8-25

 Example: Factor Rating
• A photo-processing company intends to open a new branch store.
The following table contains information on two potential locations.
Which is better?
Scores
(Out of 100)
Factor Weight Alt 1 Alt 2
Proximity to
existing source .10 100 60
Traffic volume .05 80 80
Rental costs .40 70 90
Size .10 86 92
Layout .20 40 70
Operating Cost .15 80 90
1.00

Instructor Slides 8-26

 Example: Factor Rating
• A photo-processing company intends to open a new branch store. The
following table contains information on two potential locations. Which is
better?
Scores
(Out of 100) Weighted Scores
Factor Weight Alt 1 Alt 2 Alt 1 Alt 2
Proximity to .10 100 60 .10(100) = 10.0 .10(60) = 6.0
existing source
Traffic volume .05 80 80 .05(80) = 4.0 .05(80) = 4.0
Rental costs .40 70 90 .40(70) = 28.0 .40(90) = 36.0
Size .10 86 92 .10(86) = 8.6 .10(92) = 9.2
Layout .20 40 70 .20(40) = 8.0 .20(70) = 14.0
Operating Cost .15 80 90 .15(80) = 12.0 .15(90) = 13.5
1.00 70.6 82.7

Instructor Slides 8-27

 Center of Gravity Method
Figure 8.1

a) Map showing destinations b) Coordinate system added c) Center of gravity

Instructor Slides 8-28

 Center of Gravity Method
• If quantities to be shipped to every location are equal, you can
obtain the coordinates of the center of gravity by finding the average
of the x-coordinates and the average of the y-coordinates

x
 x i

y
 y i

n
where
xi  x coordinate of destinatio n i
yi  y coordinate of destinatio n i
n  Number of destinatio ns

Instructor Slides 8-29

 Example: Center of Gravity Method
Suppose you are attempting to find the center of
gravity for the problem depicted in Figure 8.1c.

Destination
D1
x
2
y
2 x
 x i 18
  4 .5
n 4
D2 3 5
D3 5 4
D4 8 5
y
 y i

16
4
18 16 n 4

Here, the center of gravity is (4.5,4). This is

slightly west of D3 from Figure 8.1

Instructor Slides 8-30

 Center of Gravity Method
Figure 8.1

a) Map showing destinations b) Coordinate system added c) Center of gravity

Instructor Slides 8-31

 Center of Gravity Method
• Whenthe quantities to be shipped to every location
are unequal, you can obtain the coordinates of the center of
gravity by finding the weighted average of the x-coordinates and the
average of the y-coordinates

x
 xQ i i

Q i

y
yQ i i

Q i

where
Qi  Quantity t o be shipped to destinatio n i
xi  x coordinate of destinatio n i
yi  y coordinate of destinatio n i
Instructor Slides 8-32
 Example: Center of Gravity
• Suppose the shipments for the problem depicted in Figure 8.1a are
not all equal. Determine the center of gravity based on the following
information.
Weekly
Destination x y Quantity
D1 2 2 800
D2 3 5 900
D3 5 4 200
D4 8 5 100
18 16 2,000

Instructor Slides 8-33

 Example: Center of Gravity
x
 xQ i i

2(800)  3(900)  5(200)  8(100) 6,100
  3.05
Q i 2,000 2,000

y
 yQ
i
2(800)  5(900)  4(200)  5(100) 7,400
i i
  3.7
Q i 2,000 2,000
• The coordinates for the center of gravity are (3.05, 3.7). You may
round the x-coordinate down to 3.0, so the coordinates for the
center of gravity are (3.0, 3.7). This south of destination D2 (3, 5).

Instructor Slides 8-34

 Example: Center of Gravity

Instructor Slides 8-35