Preface
Facility layout problems are a general class of operations research problems concerned with finding the optimal physical arrangement of the space inside a facility.
Facility layout has been extensively studied since the 1960s. Originally motivated by
the physical organization of manufacturing systems, it remains particularly relevant
for flexible manufacturing systems that produce an array of different parts because
the layout of the production components has a significant impact on the costs and
the productivity of these systems. This is nowadays only one of the numerous areas
of application for facility layout problems, as evidenced by the large literature in the
area.
Facility layout is fundamentally concerned with imposing structure on a given
“space”, and therefore we have structured the main part of this book according to the
properties of the space under consideration and the type of structure to be imposed.
We first consider facilities that have a one-dimensional structure or, equivalently,
a row-based structure. For example, the rows may be corridors in a building, and
the departments will then be the rooms to locate along the corridor in a way that
allows efficient access. Chapter 2 considers facilities with a single row, and Chap. 3
considers two or more rows. Chapter 4 considers a single floor in a building, and
how to allocate the corresponding space to the departments to be located there. This
is generally known in the literature as the unequal-areas facility layout problem,
and it can be viewed as a two-dimensional layout problem. Chapter 5 presents
extensions of facility layout as well as some related problems. Section 5.1 introduces
the quadratic assignment problem, a well-known special case. Section 5.2 concerns
re-layout problems, which occur when changes must be made to an existing layout
by moving a certain number of departments to new locations. Section 5.3 discusses
multi-floor layout problems, which seek the optimal arrangement of departments
in a facility with multiple floors. Section 5.4 looks at dynamic versions of layout
problems, that is, where the layouts are designed to be optimal over several periods
of time, with the requirements varying between time periods. Finally, Chap. 6
illustrates a wide range of applications of facility layout in engineering via a variety
of examples from the literature.
v
Facility layout problems are a general class of operations research problems concerned with finding the optimal physical arrangement of the space inside a facility.
Facility layout has been extensively studied since the 1960s. Originally motivated by
the physical organization of manufacturing systems, it remains particularly relevant
for flexible manufacturing systems that produce an array of different parts because
the layout of the production components has a significant impact on the costs and
the productivity of these systems. This is nowadays only one of the numerous areas
of application for facility layout problems, as evidenced by the large literature in the
area.
Facility layout is fundamentally concerned with imposing structure on a given
“space”, and therefore we have structured the main part of this book according to the
properties of the space under consideration and the type of structure to be imposed.
We first consider facilities that have a one-dimensional structure or, equivalently,
a row-based structure. For example, the rows may be corridors in a building, and
the departments will then be the rooms to locate along the corridor in a way that
allows efficient access. Chapter 2 considers facilities with a single row, and Chap. 3
considers two or more rows. Chapter 4 considers a single floor in a building, and
how to allocate the corresponding space to the departments to be located there. This
is generally known in the literature as the unequal-areas facility layout problem,
and it can be viewed as a two-dimensional layout problem. Chapter 5 presents
extensions of facility layout as well as some related problems. Section 5.1 introduces
the quadratic assignment problem, a well-known special case. Section 5.2 concerns
re-layout problems, which occur when changes must be made to an existing layout
by moving a certain number of departments to new locations. Section 5.3 discusses
multi-floor layout problems, which seek the optimal arrangement of departments
in a facility with multiple floors. Section 5.4 looks at dynamic versions of layout
problems, that is, where the layouts are designed to be optimal over several periods
of time, with the requirements varying between time periods. Finally, Chap. 6
illustrates a wide range of applications of facility layout in engineering via a variety
of examples from the literature.
v