2021-03-03

ENIN 448 Facilities Planning & Design

Layout Planning Models and

Design Algorithms (Part B)

Dr. Golam Kabir

Assistant Professor
Industrial Systems Engineering
University of Regina
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Computer-Aided Layout
 As of today’s research, computer-based layout algorithms
cannot replace human judgment and experience

 Algorithms do not capture the qualitative characteristics of a

layout

 What they do?

1. Reduce time & energy in creating alternative layouts →
planner more productive
2. Increase drawing accuracy
3. Perform “what-if ” analyses based on varying the input
data on the layout itself

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Computer-Aided Layout
 Commercial packages are available for facility layout. With
some exceptions, such packages are intended for:
1. presentation purposes (electronic drafting tool) or
2. designed strictly as a layout evaluation tool.
 Some Computerized Layout Algorithms
• CRAFT
• MCCRAFT
• ALDEP
• BLOCPLAN
• LOGIC
• MULTIPLE
• MIP
• CORELAP
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CRAFT
 CRAFT- Computerized Relative Allocation of
Facilities Techniques (1963):

1. Uses a from-to chart as input data for the flow

2. Layout “cost” is measured by the distance- based
objective function (see Equation 6.1)
3. Departments are not restricted to rectangular
shapes and the layout is represented in a discrete
fashion (grid)
4. Improvement-type layout algorithm– it starts
with an initial layout, existing or prospective

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CRAFT cont’d
 How it proceeds:
1. begins by determining the centroids of the
departments in the initial layout
2. then calculates the rectilinear distance between
pairs of department’s centroids & stores the
values in a distance matrix.

Initial layout cost (see Eq. 6.1):

m m
Min Z   fijcij d ij
i1 j1

CRAFT: Distance Between Two Departments

Let
Centroid of Department A =  xA , yA 
Centroid of Department B =  xB , yB 

Then, the distance between departments A and B,

Dist(A,B)  x A  xB  y A  y B

The distance formula is illustrated with an example on the next

slide. The distance between departments A and C is the
rectilinear distance between their centroids (30,75) and (80,35).
Distance (A,C)
 x A  xC  y A  yC  30  80  75  35  90

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CRAFT: Distance Between Two Departments

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Centroid of B = (30, 25) A D

Centroid of A = (30,75)
Centroid of C = (80, 35)
C
Centroid of D = (80, 85)
Distance (A, B) = 75-25 B
= 50
Distance (C, D) = 85-35
= 50

Distance (A,C) =
 x A  xC  y A  yC  30  80  75  35  90

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

CRAFT cont’d

 CRAFT considers all possible two-way or three- way

department exchanges & identifies the best exchange
yielding the largest reduction in the layout cost

 CRAFT updates the layout according to the best

exchange, computes the new department’s centroids
as well as the new layout cost to complete the first
iteration

 Next iteration is similar to first iteration– if no

improvement, stop

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CRAFT cont’d

 It exchanges 2 departments with equal areas or

2 adjacent departments

 In its search for a better solution, CRAFT picks

only the best (estimated) exchange at each iteration–
this makes it a “steepest descent” procedure —
does not look back or forward– local optimal
solution

CRAFT cont’d
 Computer-aided layout procedures
CRAFT : an improvement procedure
— material handling cost and material flow are known
— it uses 3 matrices
1. Distance matrix of the current layout, rectilinear
distances between department centroids

D (Xa, Xb)= a+b

2. Move cost matrix cij
A B C D
A - 2 3 1
B 1 - 4 2
C 3 2 - 2
D 1 3 3 -

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CRAFT cont’d
3. From-to chart, Flow matrix Fij
A B C D
A. X 2 3 1
B. 1 X 4 2
C. 3 2 X 2
D. 1 3 3 X
Step 1. generate transportation cost matrix from the 3 matrices and
calculate the total cost
Z =Σ Σ CijFijDij
Step 2. perform all possible exchanges of centroids of departments with equal
area or having common border (pairwise or three-way, etc.)
Step 3. calculate estimated total cost of the exchanges. The exchange that has
the least estimated cost will be actually performed
Step 4. generate a new distance matrix according to the exchange done in
Step 3. repeat Steps 1, 2 and 3 until the estimated total cost cannot be
further reduced

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Example 1: Total Distance Traveled

(a) Material handling trips
To
From A B C D
A 2 7 4
B 3 5 7
C 6 7 3
D 7 7 3

 If the number of trips between two departments

are very high, then such departments should be
placed near to each other in order to minimize
the total distance traveled.
 Distance traveled from department A to B = Distance (A,B)  Number of
trips from department A to B

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To
A B C D
CRAFT: Total From

A 2 7 4
Distance Traveled (a)
B 3 5 7
C 6 7 3
(a) Material handling trips D 7 7 3
(given)

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To
A B C D
CRAFT: Total From

A 2 7 4
Distance Traveled (a)
B 3 5 7
C 6 7 3
(a) Material handling trips D 7 7 3
(given) To
From A B C D
(b) Distances (given) A 50 90 60
B 50 60 110 (b)
(c) Sample computation:
distance traveled (A,B) C 90 60 50
= trips (A,B)  dist (A,B) D 60 110 50
= 2  50

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To
From A B C D
CRAFT: Total A 2 7 4
Distance Traveled B 3 5 7 (a)
C 6 7 3
D 7 7 3
(a) Material handling trips
To
(given) From A B C D
A 50 90 60
(b) Distances (given) B 50 60 110
(b)
C 90 60 50
(c) Sample computation:
distance traveled (A,B) D 60 110 50
= trips (A,B)  dist (A,B) From
To
A B C D
= 2  50 A 100 630 240
Total distance traveled B 150 300 770 (c)
= 100+630+240+…. C 540 420 150
= 4640 D 420 770 150

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CRAFT: Savings
 As stated before, given a layout CRAFT first finds the total
distance traveled as illustrated on the previous 3 slides. CRAFT
then attempts to improve the layout by pair-wise interchanges.
 If some interchange results some savings in the total distance
traveled, the interchange that saves the most (total distance
traveled) is selected.
 While searching for the most savings, exact savings are not
computed. At the search stage, savings are computed assuming
when departments are interchanged, centroids are interchanged
too. This assumption does not give the exact savings, but
approximate savings only.
 Exact centroids are computed later.

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CRAFT: Savings
 Savings are computed for all feasible pairwise
interchanges.
 An interchange between two departments is feasible
only if the departments have the same area or they
share a common boundary.
– feasible pairs are {A,B}, {A,C}, {A,D}, {B,C},
{C,D}
– an infeasible pair is {B,D}
 Savings are not computed for interchanging B and D.
Savings are computed for each of the 5 other pair-
wise interchanges and the best one chosen.
 After the departments are interchanged, every exact
centroid is found.

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CRAFT: A Sample Computation of Savings from

a Feasible Pairwise Interchange
 To illustrate the computation of savings, we shall compute the
savings from interchanging Departments C and D
 New centroids:
A (30,75) Unchanged
B (30,25) Unchanged
C (80,85) Previous centroid of Department D
D (80,35) Previous centroid of Department C
 Note: If C and D are interchanged, exact centroids are C(80,65)
and D(80,15). So, the centroids C(80,85) and D(80,35) are not
exact, but approximate.

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CRAFT: A Sample Computation of Savings from

a Feasible Pairwise Interchange

 The first job in the computation of savings is to reconstruct the

distance matrix that would result if the interchange was made.
 The purpose of using approximate centroids will be clearer now.
 If the exact centroids were used, we would have to recompute
distances between every pair of departments that would include
one or both of C and D.
 However, since we assume that centroids of C and D will be
interchanged, the new distance matrix can be obtained just by
rearranging some rows and columns of the original distance
matrix. This will now be shown.

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CRAFT: A Sample Computation of Savings from

a Feasible Pairwise Interchange
• The matrix on the left is the previous matrix, before interchange.
The matrix on the right is after.
• Dist (A,B) and (C,D) does not change.
• New dist (A,C) = Previous dist (A,D) Interchange
• New dist (A,D) = Previous dist (A,C) C,D
• New dist (B,C) = Previous dist (B,D)
• New dist (B,D) = Previous dist (A,C)
To To
From A B C D From A B C D
A 50 90 60 A 50 60 90
B 50 60 110 B 50 110 60
C 90 60 50 C 60 110 50
D 60 110 50 D 90 60 50

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To
CRAFT: A Sample From A B C D
Computation of A 2 7 4
B 3 5 7 (a)
Savings
C 6 7 3
(a) Material handling trips D 7 7 3
(given)

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To
CRAFT: A Sample From A B C D
Computation of A 2 7 4
B 3 5 7 (a)
Savings
C 6 7 3
(a) Material handling trips D 7 7 3
(given) To
From A B C D
(b) Distances (rearranged)
A 50 60 90
B 50 110 60 (b)
C 60 110 50
D 90 60 50

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To
CRAFT: A Sample From A B C D
A 2 7 4
Computation of B 3 5 7
(a)
Savings C 6 7 3
(a) Material handling trips D 7 7 3
(given) From
To
A B C D
(b) Distances (rearranged) A 50 60 90
B 50 110 60 (b)
(c) Sample computation:
C 60 110 50
distance traveled (A,B)
D 90 60 50
= trips (A,B)  dist (A,B)
To
= From A B C D
Total distance traveled A 100 420 360
= 100+420+360+… B 150 550 420
(c)
= 4480 C 360 770 150
Savings = 4640-4480 = 160 D 630 420 150

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CRAFT: Improvement Procedure

 To complete the exercise

1. Compute savings from all the feasible interchanges. If there
is no (positive) savings, stop.
2. If any interchange gives some (positive) savings, choose the
interchange that gives the maximum savings
3. If an interchange is chosen, then for every department find
an exact centroid after the interchange is implemented
4. Repeat the above 3 steps as longs as Step 1 finds an
interchange with some (positive) savings.

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CRAFT: Exact Coordinates of Centroids

 Sometimes, an interchange may

result in a peculiar shape of a
department; a shape that is

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
composed of some rectangular D A
pieces
 For example, consider the
C
previous layout and interchange
departments A and D. The B
resulting picture is shown on the
right.
 How to compute the exact
coordinate of the centroid (of a
shape like A)? 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

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CRAFT: Exact Coordinates of Centroids

Let
50 60 70 80 90 100

𝐴 = Area A1 =
A A1
𝐴 = Area A2 =

𝑥 ,𝑦
= Centroid of A1 A2
=

𝑥 ,𝑦 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
= Centroid of A2
=
Find the centroid of A

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CRAFT: Exact Coordinates of Centroids

A1 x1  A2 x2
X-coordinate of the centroid of A 
A1  A2
A y  A2 y2
Y-coordinate of the centroid of A  1 1
A1  A2

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CRAFT cont’d

6.3

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CRAFT cont’d

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CRAFT cont’d

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CRAFT cont’d

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CRAFT cont’d

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CRAFT cont’d
 In the original design, exchange has to be departments of
equal area or adjacent departments.
(Adjacency is a necessary but not sufficient condition …)

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CRAFT: Some Comments

An improvement procedure, not a construction
procedure
At every stage some pairwise interchanges are
considered and the best one is chosen
Interchanges are only feasible if departments have
the same area; or they share a common boundary
Departments of unequal size that are not adjacent
are not considered for interchange
CRAFT is generally flexible with respect to
department shapes
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CRAFT: Some Comments

 CRAFT is strongly influenced by the starting point
(the initial layout)

 It is a highly path-dependent heuristic

 To use it effectively– try different initial layouts

 As long as the department is not split, it can

accommodate virtually any department shape

 Some department shapes may be irregular & the objective

function value may be under-estimated due to the
centriod-to-centroid measure.

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CRAFT cont’d
 CRAFT is normally restricted to rectangular buildings,
Dummy department  Flow=0, Distance=0, Area ≠0

 Dummy departments may be used to:

1. Fill building irregularities
2. Represent obstacles or unusable areas in the facility:
— stairways
— elevators
— plant services
3. Represent extra space in the facility
4. Aid in evaluating aisle locations in the final layout

 CRAFT allows the user to fix the location of any department

(dummy or otherwise):
 This helps in modeling obstacles as well as departments such
as receiving & shipping in an existing facility.

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