Quadratic Assignment Formulation for the Multifactor Facilities Layout Problem

Abstract

The multifactor facilities layout problem is one of the important cases of quadratic assignment problem (QAP), which deals with the problem of optimum assignment of n facilities to n locations and optimizing multifactor cost objective. The authors present an alternate mathematical model for QAP that combines multiple qualitative and quantitative factors separately, treating them in a different manner for the facilities layout problem. The composite factor is obtained by combining the weighted combined qualitative and quantitative factors. The distances between the locations weigh the composite factor. The objective function is to minimize the total weighted workflow distance between the facilities. The results of the proposed model are compared with that of an existing model that handles multiple qualitative and quantitative factors in the same manner.