Facility Layout (Re)Design Using Planar and Network Location Approaches

9800429 bata这项拨款为图形布局软件的开发提供资金，该软件将基于研究运筹学中两个独立但相关的领域-位置理论和布局分析之间的接口而发展起来的新理论。本研究将集中分析两个新问题。第一个被称为平面布局问题，其中机器或单元/部门必须位于现有机器或单元/部门存在的可用车间面积上。在第二个问题中，称为混合平面/网络布局问题，新机器的位置必须使它们与制造设施中的通道互补。对于这两个问题，重点是执行这些位置，以尽量减少物料搬运成本。一旦对这两个问题进行了深入的分析，我们将开发一个集成的软件工具来实现研究的理论结果。当前的布局工具几乎完全专注于对整个设施的重新设计。虽然这是大多数企业想要做的理想情况，但更常见的是在现有的制造设施中增加一些额外的空间，并布局现有和新机器，以利用可用的总空间并改进制造操作。所开发的软件将专门处理车间布局上这种反复出现的再工程工作。在理论方面，本研究通过将区位和布局分析这两个领域显著地“拉近”在一起，将为科学文献做出贡献。这应该会激起科学界其他成员的额外工作和兴趣，因为这些领域的发展传统上保持着相当的分离。

9800429 Batta This grant provides funding for the development of a graphical layout software that will be based on new theory developed from researching the interface between two separate, yet related, fields in Operations Research -- location theory and layout analysis. This research will concentrate on the analysis of two new problems. The first one is called the planar layout problem in which machines or cells/departments have to be located on the available shop floor area in the presence of other existing machines or cells/departments. In the second problem, called the mixed planar/network layout problem, the new machines have to be located such that they complement the aisles in the manufacturing facility. For both problems, the focus is to perform these locations so as to minimize the material handling cost. Once the two problems have been thoroughly analyzed, we will develop an integrated software tool to implement the theoretical results of the study. Current Layout tools focus almost exclusively on the redesign of an entire facility. Though this is ideally what most businesses want to do, it is much more common to add some additional space to an existing manufacturing facility and to relayout both the existing and the new machines so as to utilize the total space available and improve manufacturing operations. The software developed will specifically address such recurring reengineering efforts on shop-floor layouts. On the theoretical end, this research will contribute to the scientific literature by bringing the two fields of location and layout analysis significantly "closer" together. This should stir additional work and interest from other members of the scientific community, since developments in these fields have traditionally stayed quite separated.