Who goes where?
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January - March 1994
Who goes where? - a set of optimisation models helps assign groups of personnel ¡n an office relocation plan.
Steven Erikson
eleven citywide locations into three central facilities,
point in time). The dynamic component requires a solution that assigns staff to workspace at a chosen point in time, taking into consideration expected
problem that the real estate managers face is 'Who goes where (and when)?'. While the dynamic con-
Two sets of decision support models have been
solution of the static problem (the 'where and now!?. Can mathematical programming mitigate the plight of the homeless executives?
shrinkage of entities (personnel groups). The
In 1996 a large urban based organisation will consol-
idate its corporate workforce from their current
two existing, and one under construction. The
sideration (the 'when 2 are briefly discussed, the focus of this article is upon the development and
changes in the personnel structure thereafter.
developed for the analysis of this problem. The first set of models, 'The Dynamic System', is statistical in nature and projects the dynamics of the growth and
This article is an account of the development of a set
second set, 'The Static System', is an evolutionary collection of optimisation models that assigns entities with fixed sizes, either current or projected, to the available workspace in a fashion that will mini-
support system for the problem of assigning person-
organisational and physical constraints.
names, addresses, and data used in this paper have
The statistical models in The Dynamic System have been used to track the historical growth rates of the various entities, both in terms of headcount and of space requirements. This information is useful for
of models that are included in part of a decision nel groups to specific office space locations. The
been altered for the purpose of confidentiality. However, the essence of the problem is identical to what was encountered in practice.
Mr Andrews is the Director of Real Estate of a
company headquartered in a large Northeastern US city. The corporate personnel are currently located within the 'main building' on 99 Washington Street, in part of a second building at 541 Broadway, and 'in
mise a total generalised cost subject to a set of
the projection of floorspace needs for the various personnel groups. The optimisation models that
comprise the Static System consider fixed values of these space requirements for each entity and assign
each group to a specific location, or, if necessary, split groups into two, or possibly more than two,
eleven other satellite locations all within the city.
locales.
The facility at 99 Washington Street is owned by the company, and all other space is leased. The building at 99 Washington Street contains roughly 800 thousand square feet of usable space, and the 541 Broadway facility about 300 thousand square feet.
This article focuses on the Static System. A 'Base Model' that captures the essence of the general group assignment problem has
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