COMPUTER-AIDED FACILITY LAYOUT - A STATUS-REPORT

In this paper, an up-to-date review of literature on computer-aided techniques in plant layout is presented. Mathematical models in the area fall into categories of quadratic assignment models, set covering problem, integer and mixed integer programming models, nonlinear programming models and graph theoretic models. The algorithms are optimal or heuristic. The heuristic algorithms considered are construction, improvement, hybrid and fuzzy-set based algorithms. Special considerations are given to multi-criteria models/algorithms and algorithms based on artificial intelligence which are either pure expert systems or hybrid methods. Important issues in facility layout are also discussed. Deficiencies in current methods may be overcome by the use of AI based tools. More research is required in this area.