HOPE: A genetic algorithm for the unequal area facility layout problem

The paper discusses the application of an evolutionary computation technique for the design of efficient facilities. Genetic algorithms (GA) have been applied to heuristically solve a number of combinatorial problems such as scheduling, the traveling salesman problem and the quadratic assignment problem. We apply GA to the layout problem which arises frequently in the design of manufacturing and service organizations to find “good” solutions. In this paper we outline a GA based algorithm for solving the single-floor facility layout problem. We consider departments of both equal and unequal sizes. The GAs performance is evaluated using several test problems available in the literature. The results indicate that GA may provide a better alternative in a realistic environment where the objective is to find a number of “reasonably good” layouts. The implementation also provides the flexibility of having fixed departments and to interactively modify the layouts produced.