Overview of optimization algorithms in facility allocation problems

Facility location optimization is a common problem in the urben infrastructural constructions (such as hospital, school, park, and community service), this kind of problems was named as facility location allocation. The Location-Allocate(LA) Model is just developed due to handlding these problems. In this study, we review the algorithms that were applied to facility location model. Although there have been a number of papers on LA models, a comprehensive understand of algorithms in them have not been provided. Two algorithms that has been applied to LA model are studied in this paper, one is alternating heuristic algorithm, and the other is Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), We first illustrate the theories and applications of the two algorithms then both of the two algorithms are implemented into programs. At last, we design a general example to validate the feasibility of the two algorithms in facilities location optimization, and compare the advantages and drawbacks of them two.