Strategic Space Plan Initiative (SSPI)

Philip Morris USA is constructing an automated storage and retrieval system adjacent to its Manufacturing Center located in Richmond, Virginia. This initiative will clear approximately 500,000 square feet on the Manufacturing Center campus that was previously allocated for direct materials storage. The focus of this project is to determine the most efficient and effective way to allocate the newly available space. Two strategies were developed to determine the optimal layout for the Manufacturing Center. First, a manual heuristic, strategic layout planning, uses department adjacency requirements to determine the order to place departments into the layout, creating multiple layouts. Second, a mathematical optimization program using CPLEX and AMPL determines the optimal layouts that minimize material flow costs and maximize department adjacencies. Each developed layout is evaluated on both meeting desired department adjacencies and minimizing the material flow cost per week. From this data, two recommended layouts were developed