Management Science
Genetic search and the dynamic facility layout problem
Computers and Operations Research - Special issue: heuristic, genetic and tabu search
IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems
Design of robust layout for Dynamic Plant Layout Problems
Computers and Industrial Engineering
An artificial immune system based algorithm to solve unequal area facility layout problem
Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing
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This paper presents a formulation of the facilities block layout problem which explicitly considers uncertainty in material handling costs on a continuous scale by use of expected values and standard deviations of product forecasts. This formulation is solved using a genetic algorithm meta-heuristic with a flexible bay construct of the departments and total facility area. It is shown that depending on the attitude of the decision-maker towards uncertainty, the optimal design can change significantly. Furthermore, designs can be optimized directly for robustness over a range of uncertainty that is pre-specified by the user. This formulation offers a computationally tractable and intuitively appealing alternative to previous stochastic layout formulations that are based on discrete scenario probabilities.