Locating Satellite Yards in Forestry Operations

This case study describes a Capacitated Facility Location Problem model applied to a concrete situation at Bowater Canadian Forest Products. More specifically, this study concerns the location of satellite yards in the Thunder Bay region in Ontario. This problem was formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model and solved with CPLEX. The primary objective was to help the Bowater management team determine how satellite yards could be employed in the chip supply process used by the private subcontractors working for them. The results obtained identify the most appropriate sites for the satellite yards, as well as potential savings for the company.