Title: Optimal selection of multi-criteria unequal area facility layout problem: an integer linear program and Borda-Kendall-based method

Authors: Ravi Kumar; Surya Prakash Singh

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, India ' Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, India

Abstract: The paper attempts to solve multi-criteria unequal area facility layout problem. Six criteria viz. distance, adjacency, shape ratio, flexibility, accessibility and maintenance are considered here. The unequal area facility layout is solved using a software SPIRAL where the data is taken from published literature. Several alternatives are generated by varying quantitative parameters but keeping the same objective function value. The optimal decision to select the best facility layout is decided based on six qualitative criteria. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques AHP and IRP are applied on all alternative layouts and the ranking of alternatives are obtained. In addition, weighted IRP method is also proposed to rank the available layouts. AHP-IRP and weighted IRP provide independent ranking. For optimal selection of multi-criteria unequal area facility layout, an integer linear program (ILP) and Borda-Kendall (BK) method are applied. Integer linear program and Borda-Kendall method are applied to aggregate the various rankings of facility layouts for final decision.

Keywords: optimal layout; integer linear programming; ILP; Borda-Kendall method; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; interpretive ranking process; weighted IRP; unequal area facility layout.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2017.080835

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2017 Vol.11 No.1/2, pp.62 - 81

Received: 02 Jun 2015
Accepted: 20 Oct 2015
Published online: 09 Dec 2016 *

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