Workforce supply and facility location
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It is important for every company to minimize its costs. This includes labor costs. We develop mathematical models that allow a company to minimize its labor costs by deciding from where to hire workers and the amount that will be paid to those workers within a similar region. These decisions are particularly important when the company has multiple facilities that compete amongst themselves for labor resources. In areas that are experiencing economic growth or in developing countries labor resources are limited and labor decisions are critical. With this motivation, this work investigates the labor and facility location decisions of a company that has decided to build many new facilities in close proximity to each other. One example is a large manufacturing firm that seeks simultaneously to locate a new assembly plant and supplier facilities. Concentrating all, or much, of the supply chain together will cause already limited labor resources to be depleted even further. Higher wages are paid and higher labor costs are incurred by the company, as a result. On the other hand, greater transportation costs are incurred as the distances between the plant and its suppliers increase. For each of the supply chain facilities, the location of the facility, the labor markets from which to hire workers, and the wages offered must be determined. While considering these decisions, another potential factor in choosing the location for each facility is the cost of the site. This dissertation introduces this real-world problem, formulates it mathematically, and provides managerial insights for companies faced with these decisions.