A Comparison of Two Location Models in Optimizing the Decision-making on the Relocation Problem of Post Offices at Narvik, Norway

Abstract

Since 2013, the postal service provider in Norway: Posten has implemented a new strategic plan to close their large post offices across the country for improving the cost and operational efficiency. Instead, with the cooperation with large retailers, the local postal service is provided at the Posten sub-branches at some supermarkets. In this paper, an optimization problem for relocating the post offices at local supermarkets at Narvik, Norway, is investigated. For resolving the optimization problem, two classical location models: p-median problem and maximal covering problem, are employed. The problems are coded and resolved with Lingo optimization solver. The result has provided the optimal relocation plans for the sub-branches of Posten at Narvik with respect to different scenarios. In addition, a comparison between the optimal strategy and the current relocation plan is given in order to show the improvement on the system performance.