A tabu search for multi-objective single row facility layout problem

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of multi objective facility layout planning. The aim is to solve the single row facility layout problems (SRFLP) and find the linear machine sequence which minimizes the following: the total investment cost of machines; the total material handling cost; the total number of machines in the final sequence; and the total flow distance of the products in units. The tabu search algorithm (TSA) which has now become a very useful tool in solving a variety of combinatorial optimization problems is made use of here. TSA is developed to determine the product sequence based on which a common linear machine sequence is found out for multi-products with different machine sequences. We assume that, limited number of duplicate machine types available for job. The results are compared with other approaches and it shows the effectiveness of the TSA approach as a practical decision support tool to solve problems in SRFLP.