Recently, Mulvey and Crowder (Mulvey, J., H. Crowder. 1979. Cluster analysis: an application of Lagrangian relaxation. Management Sci. 25 329--340.) suggested that the p-median problem might be useful for cluster analysis problems (where the goal is to group objects described by a vector of...

Due to the combinatorial nature of the facility layout problem, current heuristic computer procedures do not always provide better solutions than visual methods. A new algorithm, FLAC (Facility Layout by Analysis of Clusters), is described which emulates the visual methods used by industrial...

An important, recurring problem in statistics involves the determination of strata boundaries for use in stratified sampling. This paper describes a practical method for stratifying a population of observations based on optimal cluster analysis. The goal of stratification is constructing a...

A critical issue in many marketing research studies is the creation of experimental clusters for the purpose of testing new products, advertising campaigns and other marketing decisions prior to widespread introduction in the marketplace. These experimental clusters are often called "test...