Facility Layout Design Using Particle Swarm Approach

The facility layout design problem is concerned with determining the arrangement and configuration of facilities, which optimizes a prescribed objective such as profit, cost, or distance, and which satisfies various prescribed constraints pertaining to available resources. In industry, facility layout design problems arise in manufacturing, in warehousing, and in various assignment type situations. The solution of this problem has impacts on the viability of the industry. For example, using the optimization methods associated with the facility layout design can reduce material-handling costs, which can comprise between 30 and 75% of the total manufacturing costs. This paper is concerned with the application of the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm to solve the problem of optimal facility layout in manufacturing system design. The general mathematical model available in literature is followed. The production flow data for varying number of products, machines and flow line are adapted for extensive application. The paper considers the different types of material flow patterns for the generalization of proposed method. The effectiveness of Particle Swarm Optimization is evaluated and compared with the benchmarked problems.