facility location – OM in the News

Amazon’s HQ2 Plans Approved for Pentagon City

Amazon is building a second headquarters, known as PenPlace, in Pentagon City.

PenPlace will have four renewable-energy powered buildings, with one featuring a Helix design totaling 3.3 million square feet. The benefits offered to the community include hiring 25,000 employees, building a community high school, providing $30 million for Arlington’s affordable housing fund, constructing open spaces, and improving transportation.

Video Spotlight:

Amazon gives tour of Met Park 3 years after Arlington was chosen for HQ2 (Nov 17, 2021, […]

By Anita Lee-Post, Ph.D.|2022-06-06T07:40:19+00:00June 22, 2022|Tags: facility location, location, social and environmental responsibility, sustainability|

Santa Barbara Chick-fil-A Too Successful?

Santa Barbara’s Chick-fil-A restaurant has been so successful that cars back up onto the road in front of the restaurant for about 90 minutes a day, and up to 155 minutes a day on Saturdays.

The backups have become such a problem that the City is in process of declaring this Chick-fil-A a public nuisance.

Santa Barbara has an ordinance that bans the construction of new drive-thru restaurants, but this Chick-fil-A location was previously a Burger King restaurant with a drive-thru, and […]

By Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.|2022-05-17T06:06:37+00:00May 18, 2022|Tags: capacity, facility location, process design, queuing theory, regulations, waiting lines|

Kroger Expands Geographic Reach for Online Orders

Kroger continues it trend of expanding to new markets without adding grocery stores.

The company is building automated, state of the art distribution centers to fill online orders. Over 1,000 robots travel a giant grid to pick the desired groceries. All of this is powered by proprietary software that helps sort items for delivery to put fragile items on top, and to reduce the number of plastic bags used.

After the order is picked, it goes into a temperature […]

By Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.|2022-04-02T01:57:02+00:00April 1, 2022|Tags: automation, distribution centers, facility location, online order fulfillment, online shopping, robotics, supply chain management|

Neon Shortages from Ukraine May Increase Global Chip Shortage

Our chip-dependent world may be dealt another blow as supplies of neon may soon be in short supply.

Ukraine-based Cryoin, which produces the critical gas, is situated in Odessa and has been shut down since the war began. In addition, transportation routes are flooded with refugees and commercial shipments may have a hard time reaching and moving through borders.

With up to 90 percent of the neon used by U.S. chip manufacturers coming from the Ukraine, alternative sources may be extremely hard […]

By Lisa M. Spencer|2022-03-15T07:41:45+00:00March 15, 2022|Tags: facility location, location, product design, sourcing, suppliers, supply chain management, vendor analysis|