Integrating design and production planning considerations in multi-bay manufacturing facility layout

This paper develops a new mathematical model that integrates layout design and production planning to prescribe efficient multi-bay manufacturing facilities. The model addresses the need to distribute department replicas throughout the facility and extends the use of product and process requirements as problem parameters in order to increase process routing flexibility. In addition, the model allows for the consideration of practical material handling and production features such as alternate process routings, product flow production patterns, and department replica capacities. Computational results demonstrate that the run time required to solve our test problems is quite acceptable given the long-term nature of facility layout decisions. Moreover, comparative results indicate that department replication can reduce material movement significantly while maintaining the existing production capacity. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.