This paper experiments application of different heuristic approaches to a real facility layout problem at a furniture manufacturing company. All the models are compared using AHP, where a number of parameters of interest are employed. The experiment shows that formal layout modelling approaches can be effectively used real problems faced in industry, leading to significant improvements.

This paper presents an algorithm for solving a multi-floor facility layout problem. The most apparent difference and also the potential difficulty in a multi-floor facility layout problem, compared to a single floor facility layout problem, are the problems regarding the placement of the vertical transportation equipments (elevators), which are to be used for vertical transportation occuring wi...

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...

The effect of workflow interference is a major concern in facility layout design. Yet, despite the extensive amount of research conducted on the facility layout problem, very little has been done to incorporate interference as part of an overall approach to layout design. This paper examines the impact of workflow interference considerations on facility layout analyses. Linear and nonlinear int...

In this paper, a quaternion firefly algorithm is utilized to solve a multi-row facility layout design problem with the objective of minimizing the total cost of transportation. A quaternion firefly algorithm takes the motion of the firefly as a quaternion one. Consequently, the solution space is explored more accurately and the answers are of higher quality. That is, the answers are considerabl...

Today’s consumer market demands that manufacturers must be competitive. This requires the efficient operation of manufacturing plants and their ability to quickly respond to changes in product mix and demand. In addition, studies show that material handling cost make up between 20 and 50 percent of the total operating cost. Therefore, this paper considers the problem of arranging and rearrangin...

facility layout problems (FLPs) are common problem in several manufacturing industries because FLPs have a great impact on production operations. Efficient manufacturing facility layout design could lead to lower manufacturing costs. Therefore, many sub problems should be addressed and considered from design stage. This research proposes a new framework for mix-model assembly line (MAL) manufac...