Abstract

Location set covering models were first described in the early 1970s. In their simplest form, they minimize the number of facilities necessary to completely cover a set of customers in some given space, where covering means providing service within a predetermined distance. This paper considers extensions of the basic model that soften the covered/not covered dichotomy and replace it with gradual covering. The models discussed in this work include the quality of service as a criterion. The models are formulated and compared with each other with respect to their size and features. A small series of computational tests concludes the paper. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.