Spatial Organization of Marketing Facilities in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Oilseeds in Sudan
研究了发展中国家营销设施的空间组织问题，以苏丹油籽行业为例，利用线性规划转运模型确定最优加工厂布局，发现更少且更大的工厂可降低运输成本。
Abstract Little attention has been devoted to the study of spatial organization of marketing facilities in developing countries, even though such studies would be most useful for a wide range of marketing problems. The results of such studies could be valuable to private and public decision‐makers in developing countries whose policies and decisions determine the number, size and location of marketing facilities. The spatial organization model developed in this paper for application to the oilseeds industry in Sudan demonstrates the relevance of this research technique for developing country studies of marketing facilities. A linear programming transshipment model is utilized to determine the optimal spatial organization of oilseeds in Sudan when the costs of oilseed assembly, processing and distribution of oil and cake to final destinations are considered simultaneously. The optimal spatial organization of oilseed processing plants was determined for six alternative solutions. Model results indicate that the optimal organization of processing plants would be obtained with fewer and larger plants, resulting in lower transportation costs .