Location assessment of outlet networks.

Sixteenth Triennial Conference of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS). University of Edinburgh, Escócia: Reino Unido, 8-12 de Julho de 2002 (Comunicação).The complexity derives mainly from the enormous amount of data that should be considered. Variables of geographical nature are used to evaluate the accessibility of the several locations, while the demographic ones allow the store’s trade area evaluation. Socioeconomic variables are indispensable in the potential customers' characterization, and competition ones are used for the evaluation of the new store market share. The methods are multiple, varying from simple analogy forecast models to very complex ones, which can incorporate causal models in a gravitacional or logit structure. More recente developments as the use of meta-heuristics such as genetic algorithms for the global problem of the multi outlet chain configuration, or the use of Voronoi tessellations in store trade area delimitation, are also presented. Finally the Geographical Information Systems’ role on the decision support process is equally explored