Application of Geographic Information Systems for Locating Distribution Center of Latex Pillow Product

Abstract

Nowadays, most of latex pillow products in case study are produced and stored all in 5 warehouses located in southern region of Thailand which causes inconvenience to satisfy the customers' orders from other regions that is far away from current sites. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to determine the optimal locations and number of distribution centers (DCs) that is one of the important ways to increase the potential to response to the customers' needs. By applying the geographic information system (GIS) with maximize coverage model in location-allocation problems, the solution was covering as many customers as possible within the services distance of distribution centers, including establishing cost of the distribution centers. The finding of this study found that two optimal distribution centers, Dong Khoi in Phetchabun Province and Nong Sai in Suratthani Province, where cover as 99.99% of demands within the service distance 500 kilometers and there were establishing cost of both is 2.55 million Baht.