FACOPT: a user friendly FACility layout OPTimization system

The facility layout problem is a well researched one. However few effective and user friendly approaches have been proposed. Since it is an NP hard problem, various optimization approaches for small problems and heuristic approaches for the larger problems have been proposed. For the most part the more effective algorithms are not user friendly. On the other hand user friendly methods have not been effective in handling the intricacies such as unequal department sizes. In this research we present FACOPT, a heuristic approach that is effective and user friendly. The software uses two methods, Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithm to solve the facility layout problem. Computational tests are also done to identify good parameter values and to compare the performance of the two algorithms. Scope and Purpose Various methods have been proposed for facility layout where departments are laid out within a facility. However many of them are not flexible enough to handle intricacies such as unequal department sizes. Others do not provide user-friendly interfaces. Thus there is a need for user-friendly software incorporating effective and flexible procedures. In this research we present FACOPT, a heuristic approach that is effective and user friendly. The software uses two different approaches to solve the facility layout problem effectively. FACOPT has a Visual BASIC interface and runs under a Windows environment for ease of use.