Abstract The floorplanning (or facility layout) problem consists in finding the optimal positions for a given set of modules of fixed area (but perhaps varying height and width) within a facility such that the distances between pairs of modules that have a positive connection cost are minimized. This is a hard combinatorial optimization problem; even the restricted version where the shapes of t...

Despite the reported effectiveness of analytical algorithms in facility layout planning, a detailed literature survey suggests a lack of new analytical methods in recent years. This paper focuses on open space facilities layout planning that involves modules with constant aspect ratios. We propose a construction-cum-improvement algorithm involving a novel combination of a boundary search-based ...

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 ...

An efficient method for size and layout optimization of the truss structures is presented in this paper. In order to this, an efficient method by combining an improved discrete particle swarm optimization (IDPSO) and method of moving asymptotes (MMA) is proposed. In the hybrid of IDPSO and MMA, the nodal coordinates defining the layout of the structure are optimized with MMA, and afterwards the...

This paper presents a history of a difficult facility layout problem that falls into the category of the Koopmans-Beckmann variant of the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP), wherein 30 facilities are to be assigned to 30 locations. The problem arose in 1972 as part of the design of a German university hospital, Klinikum Regensburg. This problem, known as the Krarup30a upon its inclusion in the ...

The design of facility layouts involves a decision process which, in general, due to its complexity, has to be decomposed into several sub-problems, namely: the selection of the most adequate manufacturing processes, the planning of equipment and labour requirements, the allocation of manufacturing operations to machines, the grouping of machines into sections (cells or departments), the select...

The unequal area facility layout problem (UA-FLP) comprises a class of extremely difficult and widely applicable optimization problems arising in diverse areas and meeting the requirements for real-world applications. Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have recently proven their effectiveness in finding (sub) optimal solutions to many NP-hard problems such as UA-FLP. A main issue in such approach is rela...

A construction site represents a conflux of concerns, constantly calling for a broad and multi-criteria approach to solving problems related to site planning and design. As an important part of site planning and design, the objective of site-level facility layout is to allocate appropriate locations and areas for accommodating temporary site-level facilities such as warehouses, job offices, wor...

In this paper, a genetic algorithm is presented for the simultaneous layout and pipe size optimization of water distribution networks and its e ciency is evaluated and compared using di erent selection mechanisms. An engineering concept of reliability is used, in which the number of independent paths from source nodes to each of the demand nodes is considered as a measure of reliability. The me...