Journal of Management Research
Volume 1, Number 2 (January - April 2001)
ISSN: 0972-5814 Online ISSN: 0974-455X
An Improved Multi-goal Heuristic for Facility Layout Problems
Subhash Chandra Amit Jaya Chandran
| Abstract |
This paper presents an improved multi-goal heuristic for facility layout design problems. The
heuristic aims at the minimization of the objective function, which incorporates two factors:
qualitative and quantitative. The quantitative factor involves the workflow and rectilinear distance
and must be minimized, whereas, the qualitative factor represents the closeness rating and is
maximized to obtain the optimal facility layout. The qualitative factor is derived from using the
Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for greater meaning and accuracy. Also, the quantification of the
qualitative factor with respect to the quantitative factor (by the usage of relative weights) is also
obtained using the AHP. An improved heuristic approach is presented which considers all possible
permutations of the facility layout to obtain the optimal solution.
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