A novel facility layout planning and optimization methodology

Abstract

This paper presents a novel factory planning system for real-time on-site facility layout planning (FLP). Two facility layout planning modules are supported, viz.; manual and automatic. In this system, a fast modelling method has been developed where users can construct existing facilities as virtual primitive models. A criterion and constraint definition mechanism is provided to define and customize the planning criteria and constraints to suit specific requirements of different FLP tasks, and an Analytical Hierarchy Process-Genetic Algorithm (AHP-GA) based optimization scheme is adopted for automatic layout planning. Augmented reality (AR) is used to provide visualization of the layout process. © 2013 CIRP.