Greenfield Analysis inputs

There are three tables that require input in order to run a Greenfield Analysis:

• Customers – The Customer table must contain a list of customers.  The Name, Latitude and Longitude values must be populated. You can also populate existing sites in the Sites table.

• Customer Demand / Customer Orders – The Customer Demand or Customer Orders table must contain at least one valid demand record for each customer. Use the Customer Model Demand option in Network Optimization options to determine which table is the source for Greenfield Analysis.
• Products – The Products table must contain a complete list of the products used in the Customer Demand table.  
• Last Mile Service Constraints – Greenfield Analysis minimizes the number of greenfield sites while respecting the constraints defined in the Last Mile Service Constraints table. Keep in mind the following with respect to Last Mile Service Constraints:
  • Greenfield Analysis does not solve for the value in Time.
  • The Service Constraint Basis on the Greenfield Options tab of Optimization Options determines whether the constraint is applied to Demand or Customers served. For example, when constraining by % Customer Served, if you have 400 customers and specify a Percentage of 50, Greenfield Analysis must serve at least 200 customers within the Distance value.
  • All customers are considered when running Greenfield Analysis; the Site and Customercolumns in the Last Mile Service Constraints table are not used as constraints for Greenfield Analysis. You can exclude existing sites as greenfield candidates using the Exclude All Existing Sites option on the Greenfield Options tab of Network Optimization options.

  • When you use the Last Mile Service Constraints table and set the Percentage to 100 for a Distance value, this will be treated the same as using the Max Sourcing Distance greenfield option.

In addition to the existing model data, when running Greenfield Analysis, there are a number of options that affect the calculation:

• Number of Greenfield Sites – Enter the number of optimally placed greenfield sites to be selected within Greenfield Analysis.

This option can be used in conjunction with Last Mile Service Constraints. Service will be calculated as a function of the number of sites you choose. It is possible that a Greenfield Analysis may be infeasible if the Last Mile Service Constraints are set too tight, since they generally act as hard constraints.

• Minimize Total Sites for Service Constraints – This value acts to limit the selection of greenfield sites.

When this option is selected, Greenfield Analysis seeks to approximate the optimal number of sites to meet customer demand based on the Last Mile Service Constraints. Greenfield Analysis minimizes the number of greenfield sites while respecting the constraints defined in the Last Mile Service Constraints table. Enabling Customer Clustering can potentially breach service constraints.

• Exclude All Existing Sites – When this option is selected, Greenfield Analysis excludes sites from the run so that no existing sites are included as greenfield sites.
• Customer Cluster Radius – In the case that you have a large number of customers, you can improve the performance of Greenfield Analysis by having it create customers clusters. See Customer clusters for additional information.
• % of Demand Served – When this option is checked, the Last Mile Service Constraints are applied to the percentage of demand served out of the total demand.
• % of Customers Served – When this option is checked, the Last Mile Service Constraints are applied to the percentage of customers served our of the total number of customers.
• Max Sourcing Distance – This value constrains the distance from which greenfield sites can serve customers. Additionally, it can dramatically speed up the greenfield solve. It is recommended when Last Mile Service Constraints are not used.
• Greenfield Site Location Options – Select the method by which you want the greenfield sites to be located:
  • Greenfield Latitude/Longitude - When this option is checked, the actual latitude and longitude of the greenfield location is used. The Output Type in the Greenfield Site Summary output table is set to “Greenfield Lat/Long”.
  • Closest City to Greenfield Latitude/Longitude - When this option is checked, Greenfield Analysis determines the latitude and longitude for the potential Greenfield location, then looks up the closest city in the Geodata.db database. The Output Type in the Greenfield Site Summary output table is set to “Closest City”.

The latitude and longitude values for both locations – the optimal greenfield and the closest city – are populated in the Greenfield Site Summary table. The first pair of values are populated in the Greenfield Latitude and Greenfield Longitude fields; the second pair are populated in the Closest City Latitude and Closest City Longitude fields.

Last mile service constraints

The Last Mile Service Constraints table enables you to specify the percentages of customers or demand to be served within specified distances from the greenfield sites. You use the Service Constraint Basis option on the Greenfield Options tab of Network Optimization options to determine if the constraints control the % of Demand Served or the % of Customer Served. For example, you may want to ensure that 60% customers are served within 400 miles from the DC, 80% within 600 miles, 95% within 800 miles. By default, last mile service constraints act as hard constraints. In many cases, last mile service constraints will be met or exceeded, but occasionally, outputs will show service levels slightly off from the inputs (specifically when customer clustering is used).

Existing DCs

Greenfield Analysis can find greenfield sites while including ”Existing DCs” in the analysis. This is useful for identifying, for example, the location of the fourth DC if the company has already three DCs and they cannot change their locations.

To solve for a greenfield site(s) with fixed existing sites, define the existing DCs as "Include" and "Existing Facilities" in the Sites table. Existing DC locations are passed to the greenfield tool as fixed DCs and optimal additional greenfield DC locations are sought.  As expected, the existing DCs' customer allocations may change when new greenfield DCs are opened.

If you want to exclude the existing DCs, select the Exclude All Existing Sites option on the Greenfield Options tab of Network Optimization options.