Definition

The problem of the p-median can be posed as follows: It is required to partition a set of clients into exactly p groups. Each group will be defined not only by the set of clients that form it, but also by the location of its median. The medians in turn determine the cost of the group. No capacity restrictions are specified for the facilities and therefore, each client can be assigned to the nearest median. A discrete spatial representation or network can be used. It is assumed that the fixed costs for the location of the facilities are identical and therefore are not taken into account in the formulation of the problem. The objective is to find a minimum cost partition of the set of clients.