A space partitioning method embedded in a simulated annealing algorithm for facility layout problems with shape constraints

We deal with facility layout problems with shape constraints. A simulated annealing algorithm is developed for the problems. In the algorithm, a solution is encoded as a matrix that has information about relative locations of the facilities in the floor. A block layout is constructed by partitioning the floor into a set of rectangular blocks according to the information while satisfying areas of facilities. In this paper, three methods are suggested for the partitioning procedure and they are employed in the simulated annealing algorithm. Results of computational experiments show that the proposed algorithm performs better than existing algorithms, especially for problems with tight shape constraints.