Combining evolutionary computation and dynamic programming for solving a dynamic facility layout problem

• Published in: European journal of operational research Vol. 165; no. 1; pp. 55 - 69
• Main Authors: Dunker, Thomas, Radons, Günter, Westkämper, Engelbert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 16-08-2005; Elsevier; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Series: European Journal of Operational Research
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Dynamic facility layout problem; Dynamic programming; Exact sciences and technology; Facilities planning; Genetic algorithms; Mathematical programming; Operational research and scientific management; Operational research. Management science; Studies; Unequal department size; Unequal department size; Dynamic programming; Dynamic facility layout problem; Genetic algorithms; Assignment problem; Genetic algorithm; Evolutionary computation; Problem solving; Plant layout; Layout problem; Quadratic assignment; Facility
• ISSN: 0377-2217; 1872-6860
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2003.01.002

This paper presents an algorithm combining dynamic programming and genetic search for solving a dynamic facility layout problem. While the quadratic assignment formulation of this problem has been deeply investigated there are very few papers solving it for departments of unequal size. We describe a model which can cope with unequal sizes, which may change from one period in time to the next. For each period a genetic algorithm evolves a population of layouts while the dynamic programming provides the evaluation of the fitness of the layouts.