Article ID: | iaor20052017 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 32 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 429 |
End Page Number: | 447 |
Publication Date: | Mar 2005 |
Journal: | Computers and Operations Research |
Authors: | Westerlund Tapio, Castillo Ignacio |
Keywords: | programming: integer |
This paper proposes a mixed-integer linear programming model for the block layout design problem with unequal areas that satisfies the area requirements 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 challenges other optimization approaches on this important class of hard, fundamental problems.