Heurística recursiva de expansión mínima para el rediseño de territorios de venta

La globalización económica ha generado cambios profundos en las relaciones comerciales y disminuido el ciclo de vida de los productos y servicios. Esta situación incrementa los niveles de oferta y obliga a las empresas a establecer estrategias que les permitan asumir la aceleración del cambio, mediante la adquisición y retención de clientes en el largo plazo, a un costo aceptable. Un elemento importante en este proceso es la fuerza de ventas, constituida por un conjunto de vendedores que representan un enlace directo entre la empresa y sus clientes. Idealmente, cada vendedor debe estar asociado a un conjunto de clientes, ubicados dentro de un área geográfica bien delimitada. El rediseño de territorios de venta es una actividad estratégica para lograrlo. En este artículo se presenta y describe una heurística recursiva de expansión mínima para el rediseño de territorios de venta biobjetivo. El problema se inspira en una empresa real que distribuye sus productos en México. La administración de la empresa busca una configuración territorial compacta, que minimice la variación de las nuevas carteras de venta con respecto a las actuales y la distancia total recorrida por los vendedores. Para observar el comportamiento de la heurística, se resuelven dos instancias extremas obtenidas a partir de la configuración regional actual y la instancia integral que no ha podido ser resuelta mediante métodos exactos. Los resultados muestran que es posible obtener territorios contiguos, detectar mercados potenciales y fuerzas de ventas excesivas o insuficientes.Economic globalization has been produced heavy changes into trade, thus lifecycle for products and services has been reduced.  This is increasing supply levels and force to companies to establishing strategies for facing change acceleration by acquiring and retaining customers in long term. All this must have an acceptable cost. Sales force is an important element for do this. Sales force consists of a set of salespeople. They represent a direct link between company and customers. Ideally, each salesman must be associated with a set of customers. Customers may be located within a well-defined geographical area. Thus, redesigning sales territories is a strategic activity that contributing to achieve that one territory will be exclusively assigned to one salesman. This paper introduces and describes a recursive minimum spanning heuristic for bi-objective redesigning sales territories. The problem was inspired for a real company which distributes its products into Mexico. The management of the company seeks for a territorial compact configuration that minimizing the difference between current and new turnover variances, and the total distance traveled by salespeople. For analyze the behavior from the proposed heuristic, two extreme instances corresponding to current regions and the integral instance were solved. Until now, has been impossible solved the integral instance by exact methods. Results showed that contiguous territories are possible, and these can contribute to identify potential markets, and detect excessive or insufficient sales force

Rediseño territorial biobjetivo usando estadística multivariante

Redesign of sales territories is a strategic activity which enables companies adapt to changes in the market and helps it to identify opportunity areas for its own expansion. This paper proposes a methodology to solve bi-objective redesign sales territories problem through an approximate Pareto front obtained by use of multivariate statistics. The redesign looks for minimization of the total distance traveled by salespeople and the turnover variation between new and current portfolios. The first objective is achieved through of a cluster analysis application based on distances of the residence population from salespeople to customer’s populations. The second objective required a customer’s classification according to some points of interest to the company. Pareto front results are obtained through structured combination of groups obtained by cluster analysis. The proposed methodology is applied to a real case and the results show that is possible to obtain an approximate Pareto front. El rediseño de territorios de venta es una actividad estratégica que permite a las empresas adaptase a los constantes cambios en el mercado y que contribuye a la identificación de áreas de oportunidad para la expansión. En este artículo se propone una metodología orientada a resolver un problema de rediseño de territorios de venta biobjetivo para obtener un frente de Pareto aproximado a partir de la utilización de estadística multivariante. Los objetivos del rediseño son la minimización de la distancia total recorrida por los vendedores y la variación de los portafolios de venta nuevos con respecto a los actuales. El primer objetivo se alcanzó a través de la aplicación de un análisis de clúster basado en las distancias de las poblaciones de residencia de los vendedores a las de los clientes. El segundo objetivo requirió la clasificación de clientes en función de algunos puntos de interés para la empresa. Los resultados múltiples se obtienen a través de la combinación estructurada de los grupos resultantes del análisis de clúster. La metodología propuesta se aplica a un caso real y los resultados muestran que es posible obtener un frente de Pareto aproximado mediante estadística multivariante.&nbsp

Operational research IO 2021—analytics for a better world. XXI Congress of APDIO, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, November 7–8, 2021

This book provides the current status of research on the application of OR methods to solve emerging and relevant operations management problems. Each chapter is a selected contribution of the IO2021 - XXI Congress of APDIO, the Portuguese Association of Operational Research, held in Figueira da Foz from 7 to 8 November 2021. Under the theme of analytics for a better world, the book presents interesting results and applications of OR cutting-edge methods and techniques to various real-world problems. Of particular importance are works applying nonlinear, multi-objective optimization, hybrid heuristics, multicriteria decision analysis, data envelopment analysis, simulation, clustering techniques and decision support systems, in different areas such as supply chain management, production planning and scheduling, logistics, energy, telecommunications, finance and health. All chapters were carefully reviewed by the members of the scientific program committee.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Area prioritization for optimal conservation planning

textThis dissertation develops an optimization framework for conservation planning and illustrates the framework using case studies from Alaska, Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge (BCNWR) in central Texas, and Mexico. The common theme of the chapters is the use of optimization models to design conservation areas. Chapter 1 explains how the subsequent chapters are related to one another. Chapter 2 develops a framework for measuring how the cost of establishing conservation areas changes over time. When this method is applied to a data set on Mexican mammals, it is shown that twice as much land would have to be set aside to protect adequate mammal habitat today than would have been required in 1970 due to ongoing deforestation. Chapter 3 presents an optimization model for planning the establishment of conservation areas that incorporates forecasts of species' responses to global warming. The model is applied to analyze endangered birds and the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) on the Arctic coast of Alaska. Chapter 4 discusses the modeling of habitat for two endangered bird species, the Black{capped Vireo (Vireo atricapillus) and the Golden{cheekedWarbler (Dendroica chrysoparia), at BCNWR using a machine{learning algorithm (Maxent). These habitat models serve as part of the input for a one{stage optimization model for acquiring land to expand BCNWR. Chapter 5 uses graph theory to select corridors to establish connectivity between conservation areas in Mexico. The planning method presented in Chapter 5 is implemented in a free software package for corridor design, LQGraph.Biological Sciences, School o

Operational Research: Methods and Applications

Throughout its history, Operational Research has evolved to include a variety of methods, models and algorithms that have been applied to a diverse and wide range of contexts. This encyclopedic article consists of two main sections: methods and applications. The first aims to summarise the up-to-date knowledge and provide an overview of the state-of-the-art methods and key developments in the various subdomains of the field. The second offers a wide-ranging list of areas where Operational Research has been applied. The article is meant to be read in a nonlinear fashion. It should be used as a point of reference or first-port-of-call for a diverse pool of readers: academics, researchers, students, and practitioners. The entries within the methods and applications sections are presented in alphabetical order. The authors dedicate this paper to the 2023 Turkey/Syria earthquake victims. We sincerely hope that advances in OR will play a role towards minimising the pain and suffering caused by this and future catastrophes

Operational research:methods and applications

Throughout its history, Operational Research has evolved to include a variety of methods, models and algorithms that have been applied to a diverse and wide range of contexts. This encyclopedic article consists of two main sections: methods and applications. The first aims to summarise the up-to-date knowledge and provide an overview of the state-of-the-art methods and key developments in the various subdomains of the field. The second offers a wide-ranging list of areas where Operational Research has been applied. The article is meant to be read in a nonlinear fashion. It should be used as a point of reference or first-port-of-call for a diverse pool of readers: academics, researchers, students, and practitioners. The entries within the methods and applications sections are presented in alphabetical order