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A sequential solution heuristic for continuous facility layout problems

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Abstract

We propose a novel heuristic approach, sequential solution method (SSM), for the efficient solution of Continuous Facility Layout Problems (CFLPs). The proposed SSM approach is compared with exact solution methods as well as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) metaheuristic algorithms. We also improved the metaheuristic approaches based on approximating the facility coordinates with the coordinates of the Center of the Smallest Rectangle (CSR) that covers all facilities in the solution. The proposed SSM approach is a recursive heuristic based on the exact solutions of reduced layout problems. Instead of solving the original CFLP with many variables, SSM first generates subproblems (facility clusters) of smaller sizes using a clustering model and then sequentially solves layout subproblems where non-member facilities locations are constrained. Based on an experimental study, we report that the proposed SSM substantially outperforms exact approaches and meta-heuristic approaches and hence provide an alternative approach for efficiently solving large CFLP instances.

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Acknowledgements

We greatly appreciate the editor and anonymous reviewer’s constructive feedback and suggestions which improved the papers presentation clarity and content. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, Gazi University Maltepe, Ankara, Türkiye

    Mehmet Burak Şenol

  2. Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ), Kahramankazan, Ankara, Türkiye

    Mehmet Burak Şenol

  3. Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Ekrem Alper Murat

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Şenol, M.B., Murat, E.A. A sequential solution heuristic for continuous facility layout problems. Ann Oper Res 320, 355–377 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-022-04907-w

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