Location decisions
• Facilities location finds the best geographic locations for the different elements in a supply chain.
• These are important decisions that affect the organisation’s performance for many years.
• If an organisation makes a mistake and opens facilities in a poor location, it cannot simply close down and move to a better place.
• The right location does not guarantee success, but the wrong location will certainly guarantee failure.
• There are other trends in location, such as a growing number of out-of-town malls, supermarkets and retail estates.
• The major trend towards shorter supply chains means that layers of intermediaries are disappearing, and logistics is concentrated in fewer facilities.
• Free trade and good transport within the European Union, for example, encourages companies to
replace national warehouses by a single European logistics centre as well as AEC.