Application of an aggregation technique to facility layout design selection

Abstract

Facility layout in manufacturing and service systems affects the productivity and efficiency of the systems. Generally, more than one appropriate location is available based on associations among facilities. This leads to alternative facility layout designs. It is not an easy activity to select the best facility layout design among alternatives for facility engineers and decision makers. Many number of ranking of alternative facility layout designs can be generated by the use of different approaches. However, rankings obtained from these approaches do not suggest unique ranking. In this study, an aggregation technique is conducted to sort facility layout design alternatives generated by multiple conventional approaches. It is mainly based on a linear programming model. The results of this study show that alternative facility layout designs can be easily ranked in descending order by the aggregation technique.