Location Analysis, Routing, and Site Selection

Organizations often need to consider distributing branch locations, franchises, service faciliities or other resources spatially in ways that optimize access to existing customers or new markets.  Frequently these decisions must be conditioned by customer expectations and patterns of travel. To address these issues, DSRA merges our clients' data with census updates or other geographically-based data then creates a model to determine optimum locations for site selection.

Location & Site Selection Analysis:  Besides the general factors which influence customers to purchase particular products or services, customers will choose a particular retail or service site based on some combination of home or work location, or on the path of the travel journey between the two. People will often use their work commute to give them access to retail and service locations not conveniently located near their homes or places of work. Thus, siting analysis can often involve a survey component which looks at the factors which influence the customer's decision-making process – which can include not only geographic proximity but such factors as parking availability, traffic flow patterns, or nearness to mass-transit. Various retail and service products are likely have a unique combinations of decision components, that is, the decision rules which apply to specific retail and entertainment products will differ from each other. There are also specific limits which customers use to define the geographic area they consider their “territory”, and the analysis seeks to determine what those rules are for a specific product or service. Such rules can vary depending on urban / rural designations, transportation mode norms, and weather variations.

Routing Analysis:  Decision Sciences has also done analysis where our clients need to dispatch vehicles to customers' locations for installations or repairs, or to provide emergency services. Here we work with routing programs designed for optimum efficiency, while not compromising customer service quality. We also conduct geographical analysis for energy studies where residential, commercial, or industrial facilities are classified into detailed weather zones in order to understand and predict patterns of energy demand. Finally, DSRA works in conjunction with Geographic Information System (GIS) experts who integrate state-of-the-art advanced mapping and analysis applications.

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