Material flow analysis and volume distance sampling in heuristic line layout procedures

An empirical investigation is focused on the relationship between material flow patterns in a manufacturing system and the distribution of the volume distance values associated with all possible solutions to a line layout problem. Volume distance distribution for line layout problems are shown to follow roughly normal distribution for some common material flow patterns. Based on this result, sampling procedures are described for estimating the parameters of volume distance distributions and proposed as a basis for formulating satisficing criteria for use with heuristic line layout procedures. Subsequent empirical studies suggest relatively low levels of error are observed in the estimation of volume distance parameters for most material flow patterns. These results suggest that volume distance sampling and material flow analysis procedures may have practical value in the development of cost effective stopping criteria for heuristic line layout methods.