Comprehensive Redesign of Industrial Facilities

在很长一段时间内，设施设计对组织的效率、灵活性和经济成功有着深远的影响。设施设计问题是众所周知的，但它几乎总是作为“绿地”设计问题来研究，即设计一个全新的设施。然而，这个项目的重点是重新设计现有设施。重新设计很重要，因为设施通常具有较长的使用寿命，并且操作需求会随着时间的推移而变化。在重新设计中，需要考虑在初始设计中不相关或不太重要的约束。这项研究将开发一个全面的、集成的框架，明确地关注重新设计，同时考虑到生产的不确定性。部门或工作中心位置的分块设计与通道结构、物料搬运系统、机器放置和输入/输出位置的详细设计相结合。另一个目标是通过将流道距离度量的选择与物料搬运系统的类型相匹配，明确考虑产品预测和生产方法的不确定性，改进设计优化目标函数。对不确定性的稳健性和对未来变化的灵活性的概念将被纳入通常的成本目标。这项研究的结果将有助于改善制造和服务运营的设施设计。直接的好处包括更高的生产率、更低的成本和更好的客户服务。为了确保工业相关性并加强技术转让，这项研究将涉及与具有非常多样化生产环境的制造商合作，提供实际的重新设计问题数据，评估开发的方法和软件，并为学生提供工业经验。这项研究的传播将通过美国物料搬运行业的大专行业教育委员会（CIC-MHE），以及会议、网站和评审出版物等常规渠道进行。通过使用CIC-MHE渠道，结果应该及时到达广大从业人员、教育工作者和研究人员的手中。

Facility design has a profound effect on the efficiency, flexibility and economic success of an organization over a long time period. The problem of facility design is well known, however it has almost always been studied as the "greenfield" design problem, that is, the design of a wholly new facility. This project, however, focuses on redesign of existing facilities. Redesign is important because facilities typically have longlifetimes and operational requirements change over time. In redesign there are constraints to be considered that were not relevant, or were less important, in the initial design. This research will develop acomprehensive, integrated framework that explicitly focuses on redesign and while considering production uncertainty. Block design of the location of departments or work centers is integrated with the detailed design of aisle structure, material handling system, machine placement and input/output locations. Another objective is to improve the design optimization objective function by matching the choice of flowpath distance metric with the type of material handling system and explicitly considering uncertainty of product forecasts and production methods. The notions of robustness to uncertainty and flexibility for future changes will be incorporated into the usual cost objectives. The results this research will lead to improved facilities designs for both manufacturing and service operations. Direct benefits will include higher productivity, reduced costs, and enhanced customer service. To ensure industrial relevance and to enhance technology transfer, this research will involve working with a manufacturer with very diverse production environments to provide actual redesign problem data, to evaluate the methodologies and software developed, and to provide an industrial experience for students. Dissemination of this research will be conducted through the College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CIC-MHE) of the Material Handling Industry of America, along with the usual channels of conferences, web sites and refereed publications. By using the CIC-MHE conduit, results should reach a wide audience of practitioners, educators and researchers in a timely manner.