Rating and Adjacency Problems in Facility Layout Construction.

Document Type : Research Studies

Author

Production and Mechanical Design Engineering Department., Faculty of Engineering., El-Mansoura University., Mansoura., Egypt.

Abstract

Most of the facility layout approaches attempt to minimize material handing cost, maximize special colosenses, or minimize a rwo-component function weighting both objectives. The most often used design approach assigns facilities to locations on a discrete divided grid. Considering the single floor problem. This study presents a two-stage heuristic approach. Fist is the rating stage using a maximization function, assisted by a rating system, proposed to integrate objective and subjective relationships into one component. Second is the construction stage using a procedure, based on a special Tronsporiation Model, proposed to solve the facility adjacency problem and heuristically locates the facilities with tentative trade offs. Also, another procedure based on linear Assignment Model is presented for solving the adjacency problem through superimposing sub-layouts. The larcer procedure slightly modifies the formulation proposed for the first. The salient advantage of the proposed approach appears in overcoming the limitations on the number of facilities and objective or subjective relationships which may attract the practitioners in different areas. Moreover, it can be fed into as an integral part of other approaches to minimize the effort consumed in constructing large layouts with multiple relationships.

Main Subjects