An improved algorithm for layout design in cellular manufacturing systems

Layout has a significant role on the efficiency of manufacturing systems, but it has not received attention of researchers in comparison to cell formation in cellular manufacturing systems. In this paper, a mathematical model for facility layout in a cellular manufacturing system is proposed that minimizes both inter-cell and intra-cell material handling costs. A variant of simulated annealing algorithm is developed to solve the model. The developed algorithm produces solutions with better quality and less computation time in comparison with the benchmarked algorithm. The superiority of the algorithm in computation time is considerable especially when the size of the problem increases.