A ‘linguistic pattern’ approach for multiple criteria facility layout problems

Various models and heuristic procedures for a multiple criteria facility layout planning problem are reviewed and the problem is formulated based on a ‘linguistuc pattern’ approach. A heuristic procedure is proposed to generate a set of efficient alternative layouts. The problem of selection of the facility layout from the set of alternatives, which satisfy different objectives and restrictions to known degrees, is considered as a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem and various MCDM approaches are reviewed. An ELECTRE method based on ‘outranking relations’ approach, is proposed for the multiple criteria evaluation and ranking of efficient layout alternatives. The problem-solving methodology is illustrated with a numerical example and directions for further investigation are identified.