Locating input and output points in facilities design - A comparison of constructive, evolutionary, and exact methods

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ARAPOĞLU R. A., Norman B., Smith A.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION, vol.5, no.3, pp.192-203, 2001 (SCI-Expanded)

• Publication Type: Article / Article
• Volume: 5 Issue: 3
• Publication Date: 2001
• Doi Number: 10.1109/4235.930310
• Journal Name: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION
• Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
• Page Numbers: pp.192-203
• Eskisehir Osmangazi University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This paper formulates and compares four new approaches to optimally locate the input and output station for each department within a facility design such that material handling costs are minimized. This problem is an NP-hard combinatorial problem with many real-life applications of considerable economic consequence. A genetic algorithm (GA) is shown to be an effective and efficient optimization method when compared to integer programming, simulated annealing, and three versions of a greedy constructive heuristic on a suite of test problems of varying size. Seeding versus random initialization of GA populations are compared.