Emergency Location Problems with an M/G/k Queueing System

Since late 1960''s, the emergency location problems, fire stations and medical emergency services have attracted the attention of researchers. Mathematical models, both deterministic and probabilistic, have been proposed and applied to find suitable locations for such facilities in many urban and rural areas. Here, we review some models proposed for finding the location of such facilities, with an eye on successfully implemented real life applications. We then propose an extension of the QM-CLAM model of Marianov and Serra (1998) to M/G/k systems, and suggest a GRASP type heuristic procedure for solving the problem. To improve the computed solution, local search heuristics are used. Sensitivity analysis and some computational results are also presented.