The facility layout problem, as typically presented in the research literature and textbooks, is depicted as a top-down two-stage process. In the first stage, the block layout, which specifies the relative location of departments, is produced. In the second stage, the detailed layout, which adds material handling aisles and exact machine and workstation placement, is determined. The detailed layout design process must also consider a myriad of ergonomic, management, organizational, and systems engineering issues. The facility layout problem as solved in practice, however, is typically not approached in a top-down sequential process, but rather a bottom-up parallel process of detailed layout design and block layout configuration. The reformulated facility layout model provided in this paper supports the bottom-up design process. Our model is a generalization of the quadratic set covering problem approach first suggested by Bazaraa in 1975 much in the same way as Montreuil's continuous layout approach presented at the first Material Handling Research Colloquium in 1990 generalized the discrete layout representation first proposed by Koopmans and Beckman in 1957.
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