The unequal area facility design problem has been studied in the literature generally by considering block layout separate from detailed design. This paper shows a tractable method for concurrently optimizing department shape and location within the facility, and selection of the appropriate number of input/output (I/O) stations per department and then optimally locating them. The distance metr...

Facility layout problem (FLP) is an inherently difficult combinatorial problem for which the quest for analytical, heuristic, and metaheuristic solution approaches has received significant attention. To this end, genetic algorithm (GA) has been an extensively studied metasearch approach. In this regard, we report a very effective memetic search algorithm (MA), which is a simple but novel variat...

In today’s economy, manufacturing plants must be able to operate efficiently and respond quickly to changes in product mix and demand. Therefore, this paper considers the problem of arranging and rearranging (when there are changes between the flows of materials between departments) manufacturing facilities such that sum of the material handling and rearrangement costs are minimized. This probl...

0377-2217/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. A doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2008.06.029 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 1 7166452357; fax E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Batta). In this paper, we consider the integration of facility placement in an existing layout and the configuration of one or two connecting sub-aisles. This is relevant, for example, when placing a new machine/department ...

Due to increased competition, the manufacturers are brought to quickly respond to the needs of customers for on-time delivery of high quality products. Many studies have been made to realize these objectives such as he studies on the facility layout problem (FLP). It is to find a good configuration of the machines, equipments or other resources in a given facility in order to optimize the produ...

The facility layout problem has generally been formulated as a quadratic assignment problem, where the interacting facilities are assigned to the various sites. In this paper a different approach, based on assigning distances between pairs of sites to pairs of facilities, is taken. A network formulation and analysis of this problem is provided. An algorithm, composed of three phases, is develop...

This paper presents an extended formulation of the unequal area facilities block layout problem which explicitly considers uncertainty in material handling costs by use of expected value and standard deviations of product forecasts. This formulation is solved using a random keys genetic algorithm (RKGA) to circumvent the need for repair operators after crossover and mutation. Because this probl...

This paper applies the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method to the selection of the best facility layout plan based on multiple dependent and independent criteria. This is the first time that this method is used in such a context. An ANP model is built taking into account the interdependencies between criteria that are found based on experts’ opinions and fundamental equations. A network struc...

1 Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 2 Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran. 3 Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 4 Department of Industrial Engineering, Islamic Azad University of Kerma...