A Tunned-parameter Hybrid Algorithm for Dynamic Facility Layout Problem with Budget Constraint using GA and SAA

A facility layout problem is concerned with determining the best position of departments, cells, or machines on the plant. An efficient layout contributes to the overall efficiency of operations. It’s been proved that, when system characteristics change, it can cause a significant increase in material handling cost. Consequently, the efficiency of the current layout decreases or is lost and it does necessitate rearrangement. On the other hand, the rearrangement of the workstations may burden a lot of expenses on the system. The problem that considers balance between material handling cost and the rearrangement cost is known as the Dynamic Facility Layout Problem (DFLP). The objective of a DFLP is to find the best layout for the company facilities in each period of planning horizon considering the rearrangement costs. Due to the complex structure of the problem, there are few researches in the literature which tried to find near optimum solutions for DFLP with budget constraint. In this paper, a new heuristic approach has been developed by combining Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Parallel Simulated Annealing Algorithm (PSAA) which is the main contribution of the current study. The results of applying the proposed algorithm were tested over a wide range of test problems taken from the literature. The results show efficiency of the hybrid algorithm GAto solve the Dynamic Facility Layout Problem with Budget Constraint (DFLPBC).