Design of hybrid layouts for large size facility layout problems

Abstract

Generally facility layout problems are solved traditionally using assembly layout or process layout or cellular layout. Hybrid layouts are layouts that combine all three traditionally layouts considering product characteristics and capacity requirements. In this research, a systematic methodology to design the hybrid layouts is performed. The need for developing a hybrid layout is justified based on the product routing and layout requirements. The size of the problem is minimized using product analysis techniques which also minimizes the computational time. New similarity measures are developed to consider the missing entities of the previous research works. Products and machines are segregated for different type of layouts (assembly layout, process layout and distributed layout) based on machine utilization and the similarities between the products. Mathematical models are developed to arrange machines that are segregated for the different types of layouts. The computational time of the mathematical models are also minimized by introducing the product machine incidence matrix as the input data. The effective utilization of the machines is maximized by sharing the machines between the layouts. The proposed methodology is evaluated by two case studies. It is proved that the methodology is effective to solve large sized facility layout problems.