Application of genetic algorithm and variable neighborhood search to solve the facility layout planning problem in job shop production system

Abstract

Today's techno savvy world is evolving with the prompt changes in technology, everyday fluctuation in demand of products as well as the increasing diversity of products, the exiting layout of facilities may invalid frequently. These changes lead to makes the improvement in the existing layout of available facilities on shop floor to cope up with the growing market competition. By keeping this concept in mind, the present study deals with the development of a model to solve facility layout problem evolving job shop production system. This problem is itself a Non-Polynomial hard and considering the various cost factors makes it more difficult to attain the optimum solution. Therefore, a nature inspired algorithm i.e. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is applied to deal with this problem while considering handling and moving cost of facilities as well as setup cost in a job shop type of production system. Moreover, the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) method has been integrated with GA to enhance the local search of optimal solution. The results revealed that the proposed approach is well suited to solve the problem effectively. Also, an attempt has been made to help the administration to decide the changes in the exiting layout by implementing the well-known "cost-benefit-analysis".