The specialists
in demographic modelling

Location Optimisation

Where and how many?
Optimisation is a flexible and powerful tool for solving difficult practical problems relating to service utilisation and resource planning. Optimisation models – where many thousands of alternative scenarios can be quickly computed and evaluated – can be an invaluable aid to strategy planning.

The models can be applied to many different types of resource deployment planning problem where key issues might include the need for cost minimisation, equality of access to service provision, efficiency of distribution or workload equalisation. Typically, models also need to handle a range of practical implementation considerations perhaps including capacity constraints and regulatory guidelines.

Service provision
Models that can aid policy development are available where there is a need to configure a service offering around the demand for that service. Examples include the locations of schools, hospitals and other health care facilities and other emergency services. Relevant optimising criteria in these cases might include minimising travel or response time or perhaps ensuring particular minimum levels of access or customer utility.

Organisational efficiency
Whilst many service provision models focus primarily on matching service levels to demand, another type of optimisation model focuses on deploying resources efficiently or equitably. This might be to organise territories so that workloads are balanced or perhaps to minimise overlap of service coverage to minimise cost. Such requirements might apply equally to the organisation of school catchments or the definition of health care regions or housing market areas.