ABSTRACT
We listed several facility design problems in Chapter 1. One of the problems that must be addressed in the early stages of facility design is facility location, which is the focus of this and the next chapter, along with the broader topics of supply chain management (SCM) and logistics management. Because managers and analysts have shifted their focus from just the manufacturing plant to the entities that the plants interact with, for example, suppliers, warehouses, and customers, SCM that covers the entire supply chain from the raw material supplier to the end customer has received much attention in the past decade.
