Capturing the dynamics of facility allocation

States that determining the configuration of a company’s facilities has become a complex issue in today’s globalizing business environment. Existing allocation models often fail to address developments over time and “soft” issues. Therefore, an existing design method to support decision making on strategic allocation issues was extended with a system dynamics component. This extension allows decision makers to capture the inherent dynamics of allocation decisions. In addition, it becomes possible to incorporate “soft” variables in predominantly quantitative models. Applies the extended design method in a case study involving a relocation problem of a mid‐sized company in the Dutch metal working industry. Demonstrates the value of this method in terms of managerial decision support, not only for this specific problem, but also for future strategic allocation issues.