Constraint programming approach to solve facility layout design problems

Abstract

We propose a methodology to solve the facility layout design problem by using constraint logic programming (CLP), which has proved to be a technology that gives good results when applied to a combinatorial problem optimisation. Methods to solve facility layout problems have to deal with a large set of factors, namely sales and production estimations, manufacturing process compatibilities, delivery dates, quality, spatial requirements, economics, management, human resources and environment. These factors make the facility layout design an extremely complex problem to solve. This complexity motivated the development of a methodology to solve the facility layout design problem using CLP.