An integrated approach for facility layout, P/D location and material handling system design

This paper describes an integrated model for solving the facility layout, pickup/drop-off locations and material handling equipment selection problems. A heuristic algorithm to solve the combinatorial problem is developed and implemented. The model to solve the facility design problem is formulated as a nonlinear mixed integer program. The proposed approach simultaneously determines the facility locations, pickup/drop-off points and material handling equipment. Due to the complexity of the problem structure, a Tabu Search metaheuristic procedure is used to solve the integrated problem. In addition, two heuristic procedures for solving sub-problems are developed. Four sets of example problems are studied, with the results of the integrated approach being better than the results of the traditional approach, i.e., solving the problems separately. The approach presented in this paper not only integrates many of the significant factors in the facilities design, it also minimizes the overall facility design costs and enables the designer to explore system designs more thoroughly.