Bat Algorithm Application for the Single Row Facility Layout Problem

Abstract

Facility layout, which involves planning, designing and optimization of physical arrangement of resources, can be defined as one of the most fundamental operations in manufacturing systems. A good placement of facilities contributes to the overall efficiency of operations and reduces total operating expenses. Because of its importance, the facility layout problem has attracted attention in the research community. However, layout problems are known as complex and solvable in exponential time. Due to the combinatorial nature of such problems, no efficient exact algorithms exist. Thus, during the last decades, several metaheuristics have been applied to obtain efficient solutions. One of the special classes of the facility layout problem is the Single Row Facility Layout Problem (SRFLP), which is expressed by finding an optimal linear placement of facilities with varying dimensions on a straight line. In this study, bat algorithm is used to solve single row layout problem. Before application, the optimal settings of the bat algorithm parameters are determined through experimental analysis. Then the performance of the bat algorithm is tested on six-problem set selected from the literature.