A Solution Approach for Agricultural Service Center Location Problem Using TOPSIS, DEA and SAW Techniques - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 45

In Darjazin-Olia, the non-dominated locations are not in the center of the
region, similar to the Boqrati region. This has happened because of attributes
which are added to this location problem; i.e. distance to district and county cent-
ers. Since the service center needs to be supported by some suppliers for some
inputs, they are should be near to these centers. For example the market of agricul-
tural inputs, fuel stations, spare parts, and also the market of agricultural products
are always placed in county and district centers.
Like what was described for Darjazin-Oila, similar results can be seen in the
Razan district. In this region, the proximity to center of the county plays the main
role in the location of the service center.
4 Conclusion
In this chapter which constitutes part of large project, several fast and intelligi-
ble approaches to solve an important agricultural facility location problem are
developed. All aspects of agricultural service location problem have been con-
sidered, i.e. from the viewpoint of customers, service suppliers, and also tech-
nical suitability of candidate location for locating the service center on them.
Some multi criteria decision making methods used to find optimum location
for ASC. These methods enable strategic managers to taking to account sus-
tainability items for location selection decisions in the subject of agricultural
services. In classic location models just distance and demand weight be men-
tioned, but in developed approach moreover other items included. The proposed
approach can be used in other regions and also other service location problems
with some modifications. If the results of ranking methods be different or not
median of ranking results which introduced in this chapter can lead to a near
to optimum solution, because each method has its different way to find rank-
ings. The main limitation of proposed approach is the non-dominated solutions
which occurred in some case studies. In this case further research is required to
overcome this.
Acknowledgments The financial support provided by University of Tehran is duly acknowledged.
Thanks and appreciations of authors also go to colleagues in developing the research and people
who have willingly helped us with their abilities.
Appendix 1: The Ranking Result of MADM Approaches
See Tables 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 and 16 .