FLP Spreadsheet Solver is a MS Excel workbook that is a unified platform for solving and visualizing results of Facility Location Problems. It integrates public GIS, metaheuristics and Excel. It is also open source.
The FLP Spreadsheet Solver developed by Microsoft Excel is a powerful open source tool that offers a unified platform for solving Facility Location Problems (VRPs). It simplifies the representation, solving, and visualizing of the output of VRPs by combining Excel, public GIS, and metaheuristics. With a capacity to solve up to 200 locations, it is currently in the beta testing phase and welcomes suggestions, comments, and bug reports.
As a successor of the VRP Spreadsheet Solver, FLP Spreadsheet Solver adheres to the same design principles and has a similar worksheet and menu structure. It offers users three goal functions: minimizing total cost, maximizing total demand covered, and minimizing the maximum service distance. Additionally, it can solve a range of Facility Location Problems such as the p-Median, Uncapacitated and Capacitated Facility Location, Maximum Coverage Location, and vertex restricted p-Center problems, among others.
The tool brings added functionality by allowing users to acquire the coordinates of a location, driving distances between locations, and a static map covering locations through Bing Maps' public GIS service. However, it is important to consult their terms of service before utilizing the FLP Spreadsheet Solver.
For users seeking more information, a video tutorial is available at the following link.
As a successor of the VRP Spreadsheet Solver, FLP Spreadsheet Solver adheres to the same design principles and has a similar worksheet and menu structure. It offers users three goal functions: minimizing total cost, maximizing total demand covered, and minimizing the maximum service distance. Additionally, it can solve a range of Facility Location Problems such as the p-Median, Uncapacitated and Capacitated Facility Location, Maximum Coverage Location, and vertex restricted p-Center problems, among others.
The tool brings added functionality by allowing users to acquire the coordinates of a location, driving distances between locations, and a static map covering locations through Bing Maps' public GIS service. However, it is important to consult their terms of service before utilizing the FLP Spreadsheet Solver.
For users seeking more information, a video tutorial is available at the following link.
What's New
Version 1.01:
Shorter setup times.
Minor bug fixes.