Abstract
Despite the reported effectiveness of analytical algorithms in facility layout planning, a detailed literature survey suggests a lack of new analytical methods in recent years. This paper focuses on open space facilities layout planning that involves modules with constant aspect ratios. We propose a construction-cum-improvement algorithm involving a novel combination of a boundary search-based heuristic placement and steepest descent-based analytical improvement. In the construction phase, the algorithm places a new module at the optimal location on the boundary of a previously constructed cluster of modules. In the improvement phase, the algorithm alternates between boundary search and steepest descent moves until it converges to a local optimum. Experiments with well-known test problems indicate that the proposed algorithm produced solutions superior both to published results and to those produced by VIP-PLANOPT, a popular, oft-cited and commercially available layout planning and optimisation software.
Ten spyte van die berigte effektiwiteit van analitiese algoritmes met betrekking tot fasiliteitsuitlegbeplanning, dui 'n gedetailleerde literatuurstudie op 'n tekort aan nuwe analitiese metodes. In hierdie studie word daar op oop-area fasiliteitsuitlegbeplanning, wat modules met konstante aspek verhouding behels, gefokus. 'n Konstrukise-en-verbeterings algoritme, wat 'n nuwe kombinasie van grenssoek gebaseerde heuristiese plasing en steilste gradiënt gebaseerde analitiese verbetering insluit, voorgestel. In die konstruksiefase plaas die algoritme 'n nuwe module by die optimale posisie op die grens van 'n voorheen geboude groep van modules. Die verbeteringsfase wissel tussen grenssoek- en steilste gradiënt bewegings totdat die algoritme konvergeer tot 'n plaaslike optimum. Eksperimente met welbekende toetsprobleme dui daarop dat die voorgestelde algoritme beter resultate as gepubliseerde data en dié van VIP-PLANOPT ('n populêre, dikwels na verwysde, kommersiële fasiliteitsbeplanning sagteware) behaal.