An island model genetic algorithm for unequal area facility layout problems

The Unequal Area Facility Layout Problem (UA-FLP) has been addressed by various methods, including mathematical modelling, heuristic and metaheuristic approaches. Nevertheless, each type of approach presents problems such as premature convergence, lack of diversity, or high computational cost. In this paper, for the first time, an Island Model Genetic Algorithm (IMGA) is proposed to solve these subjects in the UA-FLP. The parallel evolution of several populations is used to maintain the population diversity and to obtain a wider sampling of the search space to obtain better quality solutions in fewer generations. Our novel approach was tested with a well-known set of problems taken from the literature and the results were compared with those of previous reports. In most cases, the results obtained by our novel approach improved on the previous results. Additionally, the proposed approach is able to reach good solutions with a wide range of problem sizes and in a reasonable computational time.