A new heuristic approach for a computer-aided facility layout

摘要

Purpose - This paper seeks to apply a heuristic approach to solve the facility layout problem and the description of a new computer-aided layout design system. Design/methodology/approach - The system utilizes a new approach for computing the adjacency scores, stacking of departments, and reserving or changing the department’s shapes and dimensions. The system algorithms are based on calculating the minimal distance between departments and modified departmental closeness rating. Findings - The research addressed in this paper has resulted in developing FLASP (Facility LAyout Support Program) software. FLASP could reduce the number of iterations needed to reach the optimal solution of the layout problems by restricting the location for each department depending on the relationships between them. Practical implications - The system is built on a set of algorithms that are concerned with stacking, calculating the shortest rectilinear distances between departments, adjacency matrix system, modifications capabilities, and plans main aisles surrounding each department. Originality/value - The program gathers the importance of both the adjacency relationships and the distances between departments in a way that depends on the concept that the adjacency score should not be nullified just because the two departments are no longer strictly adjacent. It rather considers that the adjacency score fades away gradually with the increase of distance between the two departments which leads to a main difference in distance consideration.