An ε-accurate model for optimal unequal-area block layout design

Authors:
Ignacio Castillo;Tapio Westerlund
Affiliations:
Department of Finance and Management Science, University of Alberta School of Business, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2R6;Process Design Laboratory, Åbo Akademi University, Biskopsgatan 8, Åbo, FIN-20500 Finland
Venue:
Computers and Operations Research
Year:
2005

Citing 2
Cited 3

Enhanced Model Formulations for Optimal Facility Layout

Operations Research
Optimal facility layout design11This study was supported in part by an Auburn College of Engineering infrastructure award made to Drs. Meller and Vance, and NSF CAREER Grants DMII 9623605 and DMII 9502502.

Operations Research Letters

A new optimization model to support a bottom-up approach to facility design

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Applying the sequence-pair representation to optimal facility layout designs

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New methods for calculating $$\alpha $$BB-type underestimators

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Abstract

This paper proposes a mixed-integer linear programming model for the block layout design problem with unequal areas that satisfies the area recuirements with a given accuracy. The basic aspect of the model consists of an ε-accurate representation of the underlying nonconvex and hyperbolic area restrictions using cutting planes. The use of such a representation of the area restrictions allow us to solve several challenging test problems to optimality with a guarantee that the final area of each department is within an ε% error of the required area. Numerical results indicate that the proposed model seriously challenge other optimization approaches on this important class of hard, fundamental problems.