Robust Facility Layout Design under Uncertain Product Demands

Facility layout problem (FLP) is one of the classical and important problems in manufacturing system. It involves determining the optimal placement of different types of facilities within the boundaries of workshop so that materials handling cost is optimized. Aiming at dynamic facility layout problem caused by uncertainty of product demands, a novel continuous formulation of robust facility layout is presented on the basis of fuzzy-random theory. The main factors causing uncertainty demands are analyzed and the uncertain demands are represented by fuzzy random variables. To minimize material handling cost between the various departments, a robust layout model with unequal-area departments is established under fuzzy random environments. Moreover, the position-based flexible particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed to obtain feasible optimization solutions. Finally, a case study of manufacturing system has been utilized for the verification of the above model and optimization.