A methodology for the location of facility ingress/egress points

This article presents an integrated methodology for the inclusion of a facility’s interactions with the outside environment, and the impact of those interactions on the location of entrances and exits within the facility. For example, the outside interactions generated by shipping and receiving activities will significantly influence the location of facility ingress/egress points. The ‘practical layout planning’ (PLP) methodology integrates both layout construction and improvement techniques. The principal idea in this methodology is that departments within a facility be ‘condensed’ into a number of ‘points’. In the layout construction phase, the relative location of these points is determined using multifacility location theory, where the facility’s interactions with the outside environment are represented by ‘contact points’ and the departments in the layout are analogous to the new facilities to be located. Once these relative departmental positions are obtained, the ‘points’ are then adjusted for areas to obtain a constructed layout. In the improvement technique, intra-departmental flows are optimised by the optimal location of ingress/egress points which are determined by again using multifacility location theory. Interdepartmental flow is optimised by minimising the distance between departments as indicated by their closest ingress/egress points. The objective is to obtain a minimum total flow-cost by interchanging departmental locations without violating physical constraints. The PLP methodology is demonstrated with a modest example.