Sustainable facility relocation in agriculture systems using the GIS and best–worst method

To avoid sub-optimization in wheat storage centers, one of the most strategic facilities, it is necessary to review and relocate them to be optimized regularly. The present study aims to propose an integrated method using geographic information systems (GISs) and an appropriate weighting algorithm for the relocation of wheat storage facilities.

To achieve the goal mentioned above, sustainability pillars in facility location and relocation are initially developed; afterward, a set of suitable criteria are obtained from various scientific resources. Then, the weight of each sustainable development pillar and its corresponding sub-criteria were identified through utilizing the best–worst method (BWM). By applying the obtained weights in the ArcGIS software package, various geographical layers were designed, and land-use planning, logistics planning and sustainable logistics planning are carried out in the regions. The regions are ranked based on the scores obtained in the processes, and the best regions are selected for sustainable relocation problem.

A case study including 430 regions (counties) in Iran is conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the suggested approach. The study results indicate that Iran possesses a superior state for establishing wheat storage centers in terms of infrastructural and social aspects. Also, it is established that 16% of counties are recognized as sustainable locations for relocating the wheat storage facilities.

There is no most suitable analysis of the wheat storage facilities, as well as their strategic position in the supply chain, and there is a lack of considering sustainability in wheat storage facility location, despite the particular importance of it to the supply chain.

This framework is applied in an Iranian wheat-bread supply chain to find the best sustainable facilities. It is noted that this algorithm can be applied in other strategic facilities by minor and some major changes.

Decision-makers can apply the proposed methodology to find the best relocation sites for wheat storage facilities as the main part of wheat-bread supply chain in order to prevent sub-optimization and improve the efficiency of their supply chain.