Socioeconomics in supply chain management: a case study analysis of facility location decisions with GIS

Facility location decisions are considered the most critical part of the supply chain and are vital for efficient and effective flow of goods and materials. Engineers and planners continue to recognise the uncertainty regarding future conditions with facility location decisions and realise the fact that transportation decisions are often on short notice in response to facility changes. Environmental justice assessment has traditionally focused on identifying distributive effects to protected populations. No quantitative comparisons of supply chain facility location decisions on protected populations have been reported in the literature. The objective of this research is to develop a multi-objective framework for integrating the socioeconomic effects of facility location decisions on protected populations. Various socioeconomic factors are integrated with geographic information systems to determine the extent of impact of supply chain facility locations on protected populations. A case study is performed to examine the robustness of the developed methodology.