Abstract
This paper presents a novel hybrid metaheuristic GA-VNS matching genetic algorithm (GA) and variable neighborhood search (VNS) to the dynamic facility layout problem (DFLP). The DFLP is a well-known NP hard problem which aims at assigning a set of facilities to a set of locations over a time planning horizon so that the total cost including material handling cost and re-arrangement cost is minimized. The proposed hybrid approach in this paper elegantly integrates the exploitation ability of VNS and exploration ability of GA. To examine the performance of the proposed hybrid approach, a set of instance problems have been used from the literature. As demonstrated in the results, the GA-VNS is mighty of attaining high quality solution. Compared with some state-of-the-art algorithms, our proposed hybrid approach is competitive.
Highlights
The dynamic facility layout problem (DFLP) is the determination of the most efficient arrangement of a number of facilities on the plant floor over multiple periods so that the sum of material handling cost and re-arrangement cost is minimized
Due to stochastic characteristics of hybrid genetic algorithm (GA)-variable neighborhood search (VNS), five independent replications were run over each problem
A new hybrid GA-VNS was introduced to deal with the DFLP
Summary
The DFLP is the determination of the most efficient arrangement of a number of facilities on the plant floor over multiple periods so that the sum of material handling cost and re-arrangement cost is minimized. The DFLP is an extension of static facility layout problem (SFLP) by considering changes in material flow between facilities over time planning periods. Most of the research conducted on facility layout problem has been focused on SFLP type; nowadays there is a necessity of considering dynamic condition due to demand of flexibility. It is important to notice that the DFLP can be converted to SFLP if and only if one of circumstances given below occurs: If material handling costs are extremely larger than re-arrangement costs, DFLP can be solved as a series of SFLP. It is clear that the layout configuration tends to be fixed if the re-arrangement cost is high while there are more tendencies toward changing layout plan over the time horizon if the re-arrangement cost is low. The assumptions of DFLP are defined as follows: the flow between facilities is dynamic and deterministic; facilities and locations are all equal size; the distances between facilities are predetermined [1]
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