On the exact solution of a facility layout problem

We consider the layout problem of arranging a number of departments on a line. This problem is known as single row facility layout. The problem is very difficult to be solved. In fact, it has as a particular case the linear ordering problem, which is strongly NP-hard. In this paper, a new mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed for the problem. Theoretical arguments as well as computational results are given which demonstrate the efficiency of the new model relatively to previous mixed-integer linear programming models proposed for the problem.