A Technique to Solve Dynamic Layout Problem with Fixed and Rectangular Departments

Recently, due to consumer demands have been varied, it is essential that a facility layout is able to adapt to the demands dynamically. In this paper, we present a technique to solve a dynamic layout problem. We deal with the problem by simulataneously considering two kinds of flexibility. One is involved with the rearrangement and the changing size of departments. The other is for the fixed area and shape of the building. The Bottom-Left (BL) algorithm is integrated in the technique in order to treat rectangular departments. The two steps Geretic Algorithm (GA) to improve the solutions, which involved an operation called GENITOR algorithm, is proposed. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.