Mitigating the consequences of disruptions by locating temporary facilities and balancing the redistribution of users

Abstract

Many service systems are subject to disruptions that can reduce their operational capacity, forcing users to find alternative ways to meet their service needs. One way to mitigate such effects is to locate temporary facilities where users can receive services. Also, users can be served in facilities unaffected by the disruptions. This paper considers the problem of locating temporary facilities after a disruption and redistributing users to minimize the average travel distance. Compared with existing models, the proposed approach allows limited overcapacity and balances it across facilities to ensure a more even redistribution of users. A mathematical formulation of mixed integer programming is proposed and used to determine the locations of temporary facilities and the balanced redistribution plan. The final number of temporary facilities is determined using a TOPSIS method. The proposed approach integrates an exact approach with the TOPSIS method and enables the straightforward addition of new criteria without modifying the mathematical formulation. Testing on small-sized hypothetical examples demonstrates that, without capacity constraints, overcapacity in some facilities can reach 150%, whereas the proposed approach limits it to 45% and balances it so that differences among facilities do not exceed 10%. The results of testing illustrate that the proposed approach effectively solves the multi-objective location and redistribution problem while avoiding computationally intensive methods such as multi-criteria optimization or metaheuristics. The proposed approach provides a flexible and implementable framework that balances system management and user objectives under disruptions.