Purpose – In spite of having a number of general-purpose algorithms for solving plant layout problems, facility planners may still face a challenging task to adjust these algorithms to handle special, but not uncommon, layout problems. The purpose of this study is to propose a new method for addressing the impact of overhead space utilization on a plant layout solution. Design/methodology/appro...

INTRODUCTION: The appropriate-use optimization of the limited spaces of the Iranian hospitals is believed to be a crucial step towards promoting the efficiency of these healthcare centers. The issue determining the optimization patterns of the layout of units has led to a lot of efforts by researchers as it increases the efficiency of the hospitals through patients’ improvement, changing the lo...

Facility layout design is a strategic issue and has a significant and lasting impact on the efficiency of a manufacturing system. An ideal facility layout provides the optimum relationship among output, floor area and manufacturing process. Traditionally, the facility layout problem is solved using many methods like heuristics, Mathematical programming, Knowledge based approaches etc. This pape...

In this paper, an unequal area Cyclic Facility Layout Problem (CFLP) is studied. Dynamic and seasonal nature of the product demands results in the necessity for considering the CFLP where product demands as well as the departmental area requirements are changing from one period to the next one. Since the CFLP is NP-hard, we propose a Simulated Annealing (SA) metaheuristic with a dynamic tempera...

The unequal area facility layout problem (UA-FLP) refers to the reasonable arrangement of a certain number facilities in given area. should satisfy constraints and optimize optimization objectives as far possible. In this paper, method combining improved lowest horizontal line particle swarm algorithm is proposed solve UA-FLP, which achieves multi-objective material handling cost, adjacent valu...