This tool chooses which of a set of candidate sites to open, and allocates demand to them, over travel times from the /time-filter endpoint. It offers the seven Esri location-allocation problem types, without needing a network dataset.
If any facility's search fails, the whole run fails, whatever the Robust Mode setting: a facility with no travel times would never be chosen, with nothing to show why.
| Description | |
|---|---|
| Facilities | The point layer of sites to choose between: candidates, sites that must be kept, and competitors |
| Facilities ID | The field identifying each facility in the output |
| Demand Points | The point layer holding the demand to serve, such as customers, population centroids or delivery stops |
| Demand Points ID | The field identifying each demand point in the output |
| Travel Mode | Any of the 13 transport modes the Custom tools offer |
| Departing / Arriving | departure - journeys leave each facility and travel to the demand (deliveries, emergency response). arrival - journeys leave the demand points and arrive at each facility (shops, clinics). |
| Time Zone | The time zone the departure or arrival time is in |
| Departing / Arriving Time | The departure or arrival time |
| Travel time (in minutes) | The maximum journey time, up to 240. A demand point further than this from a facility can't be served by it. |
| Facility Role Field | A field saying what each facility is: candidate (may be chosen), required (always chosen) or competitor (never chosen; takes demand in the market share problems only). Blank means candidate. |
| Facility Attractiveness Field | A field giving how attractive each facility is, for the market share problems. Blank counts as 1. |
| Facility Capacity Field | A field giving how much demand weight each facility can take. Blank uses the Default Capacity. |
| Demand Weight Field | A field giving how much each demand point counts for, such as population or spend. Fractions are allowed; blank counts as 1. |
| Problem Type | What to optimise for (see below). Defaults to Minimize impedance (p-median). |
| Facilities To Choose | How many facilities to end up with, including required ones. Defaults to 1. |
| Impedance Transformation | How travel time is weighted: linear (the default), power or exponential. The last two penalise long journeys harder. |
| Impedance Parameter | The exponent for power, or the rate for exponential. Must be above 0; defaults to 1. |
| Default Capacity | The capacity of a facility with no value in the Facility Capacity Field. Defaults to 100. |
| Target Market Share (%) | The share of the market to capture, for Target market share. Defaults to 50. |
| Output Allocation Lines / Output Demand Points / Output Facility Table | Where to save the three outputs - all in the project geodatabase, with different names |
The optional Transportation options and Snapping are described on Common parameters. There is no search range, because the solver needs exactly one travel time per pair.
The dialog greys out the inputs the chosen problem type doesn't use.
| Problem type | Goal | Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Minimize impedance (p-median) | The smallest total weighted travel time from every demand point to its nearest chosen facility | Facilities To Choose, impedance |
| Maximize coverage | As much demand weight as possible within the travel time of a chosen facility | Facilities To Choose |
| Maximize capacitated coverage | The same, but no facility takes more demand than its capacity | Facilities To Choose, capacity |
| Maximize coverage, minimize facilities | The fewest facilities that cover as much as all of them together would | - |
| Maximize attendance | The most total attendance, where nearer demand counts for more | Facilities To Choose, impedance |
| Maximize market share | The most demand captured, split between your facilities and competitors by attractiveness and travel time | Facilities To Choose, impedance, attractiveness |
| Target market share | The fewest facilities that capture the target share | Impedance, attractiveness, Target Market Share |
Output Allocation Lines- one straight line per allocation, joining a demand point to its facility (a join, not the route travelled), withdemand_id,facility_id,role,travel_timeandweight_allocatedOutput Demand Points- every demand point withdemand_id,facility_id,travel_time,demand_weight,weight_allocatedandallocated(1 if a chosen facility serves it, 0 if none does)Output Facility Table- one row per chosen facility (plus competitors in the market share problems) withfacility_id,role,chosen,demand_count,demand_weight,weighted_costandcapacity_used_pct
In the market share problems a demand point can be split between facilities. The point layer shows the chosen facility with the largest share; the lines show the whole split.