Generalized Weber Problem with Rectangular Regions

The problem of locating one or more new facilities relative to a number of existing rectangular regions is treated for the case where the rectilinear norm is used. The new facilities are to be located such that the total weighted distance is minimized. If there is interfacility interaction among the new facilities, a gradient-free nonlinear search algorithm is utilized. Computational experience suggests that this algorithm is expedient even in the solution of large problems.