A framework for multi-objective facility layout design

Multi-objective meta-heuristic framework for the BLP.Integrating several recent advances in the layout design.More than one possible layout to implement depending on management preferences.Good starting point when faced with a decision about which layout to implement. The most commonly used metric for facility layout design in the academic literature is the flow-distance metric, a weighted average between the material transfer and the distance travelled. Researchers and practitioners, however, have recognized that other metrics are also important. Facility layout designs obtained using the flow-distance metric exclusively have been criticized because they completely ignore empty material transfer, which generally increases work-in-process and equipment costs. Therefore, facility layout design (block layout design in particular) based exclusively on the flow-distance metric is insufficient. In this paper, we present a framework that utilizes the recent advancements in the facility planning literature to generate block layout designs based on three objectives: flow-distance, average work-in-process, and the number of required material handling devices. Numerical experiments are conducted on a number of standard problems, and the tradeoffs between the different objectives are studied. Our study indicates that it is critical to pursue multi-objective analysis and optimization for the actual implementation of the layouts.