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This article presents an integrated methodology for the inclusion of a facility′s interactions with the outside environment, and the impact of those interactions on the location of entrances and exits within the facility. For example, the outside interactions generated by shipping and receiving activities will significantly influence the location of facility ingress/egress points. The “practical layout planning” (PLP) methodology integrates both layout construction and improvement techniques. The principal idea in this methodology is that departments within a facility be “condensed” into a number of “points”. In the layout construction phase, the relative location of these points is determined using multifacility location theory, where the facility′s interactions with the outside environment are represented by “contact points” and the departments in the layout are analogous to the new facilities to be located. Once these relative departmental positions are obtained, the “points” are then adjusted for areas to obtain a constructed layout. In the improvement technique, intra‐departmental flows are optimised by the optimal location of ingress/egress points which are determined by again using multifacility location theory. Interdepartmental flow is optimised by minimising the distance between departments as indicated by their closest ingress/egress points. The objective is to obtain a minimum total flow‐cost by interchanging departmental locations without violating physical constraints. The PLP methodology is demonstrated with a modest example.

The concrete building products manufacturing industry supplies 2,000‐4,000 precast concrete building products to the construction industry. Owing to seasonal demand, the industry builds up stock in winter to meet the high demand in summer. As concrete products are heavy and vary in shape and size, proper stocking in terms of layout and methods of stocking of products on the yard is essential. Industrial practice suggests that stockyard space management gets less attention during strategic and budget planning as it is left to the stockyard manager. The industry experiences space congestion for both the storage and dispatch of products. During dispatch process, greater retrieval time is required, long queues of lorries (shipping vehicles) are formed and desired level of service cannot be maintained. Presents a review of stockyard operations, analysis of parameters affecting loading and dispatch process on the yard and strategies to optimise the stockyard layout. It is expected that proper layout planning will reduce the cost of delivery of products by 5‐10 per cent in the industry where profit is less than 5‐8 per cent.

To establish how and why exhibition managers manage circulation, this study explores the techniques (specific activities used to influence circulation), outputs (tangible enhancements in the performance of the exhibition resulting from changes in circulation dynamics) and outcomes (benefits of those enhancements to exhibitors, attendees and the exhibition organiser) of circulation management.

In face-to-face interviews, 10 exhibition managers were asked how and why they manage attendee circulation, which also involved a card-sorting exercise to elicit tacit circulation management knowledge. Four different experienced exhibitions managers from three continents were asked to validate the findings.

Four types of techniques were identified: magnet, layout, curiosity and playfulness and guiding techniques, with these implemented to achieve five outputs: greater footfall, better exposure to exhibits, enhanced navigation, greater buzz and managing congestion levels. The results further show that circulation was managed to achieve a variety of organiser-, exhibitor- and attendee-related outcomes. The study uncovered a large range of factors influencing the employment of circulation management techniques. Conflicts in outputs resulting from several techniques are highlighted, requiring the exhibition manager to establish which outputs and resulting outcomes take priority over others.

This exploratory study is the first study to propose a circulation management model for the exhibition context, equipping exhibition managers with knowledge to strategically manage attendee circulation.

Computer‐based models for the automatic generation of facility layouts have been shown to provide significant benefits to the industrial community for the planning and development of facilities. In a manufacturing environment, layouts are often needed for the manufacture, storage and shipment of specific product types within specific time periods. This is especially true in metal fabrication plants, as the dynamic nature of product storage and manufacture dictates the need for effective layout generation to achieve cost reductions. The system described in this paper integrates raw material storage, inventory management, scheduling and rack system design with facility layout development for the most satisfactory dynamic response. The research addressed in this paper has resulted in the development of a computer‐based model that focuses on the concept of integrating the domains of plant layout, material handling and warehousing in terms of raising overall effectiveness.

Flexible fixturing is an important aspect of any flexible manufacturing system (FMS) and computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) environment. The production analysis for fixturing within an FMS environment is presented. Various approaches to flexible fixturing are briefly described. The reconfigurable fixturing is one of the most appropriate flexible fixturing techniques for CIM environment. Reconfigurable and/or automated modular fixturing employs a number of fixture modules that are set up, adjusted and changed to form different fixture layout. The requirements for locating and constraining workpieces are presented. In addition, computer‐aided planning and analysis of fixture set up are discussed.

Some of the main features of the major existing approaches designed to solve the multi‐goal layout problem are highlighted. Most of these heuristic approaches are of the improvement type which take account of constraints within areas of departments. Two heuristic approaches of the construction type are outlined. MFLAP (Multi‐goal Facility Layout Planning) is a construction type algorithm based on cell formation technique. MFLAPSA (Multi‐goal Facility Layout Planning under the constraints on Shapes and Areas of Facilities), like MFLAP, is also a construction type heuristic based on cell formation technique but it incorporates additional constraints such as shape, location flexibility and exposure for a department. The procedure and capabilities of MFLAP and MFLAPSA are outlined.

The aim of the present work is to provide a case study where lean production (LP) techniques are implemented in a semi-automated assembly line with O-shaped (closed-loop) layout configuration. The action research has been conducted within an assembly line for automotive components. The work aims to provide insights on the impact of loop layout features with respect to lean principles’ application; operative solutions related to some logistic limit of loop layout; and how kanban technique can be adapted to an O-shaped layout.

The main research methodology is based on action research within an assembly line of oil pumps. The two research questions find answer through literature analysis and implementation of LP in the O-shaped layout. In the A3 step, we identify the main weak points of a loop layout also under the perspective of operators’ feeling. The analysis of the main constraints is conducted in this step, with respect to the most common layout used within LP adoption. Steps A4 and A5 answer to RQ2 by an on-field results’ analysis.

The use of an O-shaped layout may allow to improve ergonomic conditions for workers; to better organize parts feeding through slides and chutes because of the presence of operators outside the line. The new approach to determine the number of withdrawal kanban potentially extends the findings of Tardif et al. (2012): the minimum of the objective function is reached with a higher number of withdrawal kanbans.

The approach is applied within a stand-alone line, while in several industrial contexts, we may find several of these lines in the same shop floor. In this case, LP implementation would cope with the several kanban cards circulating, the over-saturation of the logistic operator in supplying all the lines with smaller quantities of materials.

The action research resulted in the introduction of a new concept of supermarket, conceived as a decoupling buffer that lies near the line and in the review feeding devices, with the adoption of bins and operators’ feeding chutes. Parts’ feeding systems is reorganized with a two levels of withdrawal kanban. The introduction of line supermarket and the change of supply policies from pallets to bins contributed to the strong reduction of average work-in-progress. Yet, the double-withdrawal kanban and the small quantities supplied may cause an increase of material handling times and meters covered by operators.

Better working condition of the line operators because of the presence of ergonomic chutes for parts’ feeding. In contrast, we observed a high saturation of logistic operator because of the small quantities of components supplied on the line, with an increased stress of this worker.

A decoupled withdrawal kanban (DWK) is developed. In DWK, the first withdrawal is issued to the supermarket that serves the line. The second withdrawal kanban is issued from the supermarket to the central warehouse. Within DWK, we propose a modified dimensioning formula through minimization of the objective function Z(k). Parts’ feeding is now organized with sliding chutes on operators’ workstations to collect components in accordance to kanban dimensioning.

The purpose of this paper is to tackle a satellite module layout design problem (SMLDP). As a complex engineering layout and combinatorial optimization problem, SMLDP cannot be solved effectively by traditional exact methods. Although evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have shown some promise of tackling SMLDP in previous work, the solution quality and computational efficiency still pose a challenge. This paper aims to address these two issues.

Scatter search (SS) and a cooperative co‐evolutionary architecture are integrated to form a new approach called a cooperative co‐evolutionary scatter search (CCSS). The cooperative co‐evolutionary architecture is characterized by the decomposition and cooperation for dealing with complex engineering problems. SS is a flexible meta‐heuristic method that can effectively solve the combinatorial optimization problems. Designing the elements of SS is context‐dependent. Considering the characteristics of SMLDP, our work focuses on two folds: the diversification method, and the reference set update method. The diversification method is built on the method of coordinate transformation and the controlled randomness. The reference set is updated by the static method on the basis of two dissimilarities. Two test problems for circles packing illustrated the capacity of SS. However, when solving SMLDP, SS shows some limitations in the computational time and quality. This study adopts divide‐conquer‐coordination strategy to decompose SMLDP into several layout sub‐problems. Then CCSS is applied to cooperatively solve these sub‐problems. The experimental results illustrate the capability of the proposed approach in tackling the complex problem with less computational effort.

Applying CCSS to SMLDP can obtain satisfying solutions in terms of quality and computational efficiency. This contrasts with the limiting experimental results of SMLDP with some approaches (including modified SS).

A new CCSS is proposed to provide an effective and efficient way of solving SMLDP. Some elements of SS are improved to address the layout problem. SMLDP is decomposed into several sub‐problems that can be solved cooperatively by CCSS after its characteristics are taken into consideration.

This paper develops a platform that can be used to determine how to effectively and efficiently deal with a large number of temporary facilities under a constrained site condition(s). The ultimate goal is to reduce the material handling costs between transformation phases of construction works occurring during the project's development period.

Empirical and deductive research is first adopted to mathematical model dynamic site layout planning using the branch and bond algorithm (B&B). Second, a real-life construction project is examined to illustrate how dynamic site layout planning (using the aforementioned B&B algorithm and a computer software program called LINGO) can reduce the material handling costs. The application of the proposed methodology is then showcased against a case study that utilizes a comparative analysis between the “dynamic” and “statistic” site planning approaches.

By dividing the construction period into different phases, the developed model is shown to be capable of optimizing the material handling costs between the phases of transformation during construction works. Optimal costs are also considered using the site boundary and unit cost for moving construction materials between two facilities. The comparative analysis results illustrate that the B&B algorithm reduces material handling costs by 33%.

The proposed model offers an effective planning algorithm for the site layout and location of temporary facilities. More specifically, it can make a substantial improvement in reducing the travel time and material handling cost between the temporary facilities in the construction sites.

The primary knowledge contribution of this study to the site layout is successfully deal with the unequal area problem of temporary site facilities and incorporates the concept of dynamics site planning into the algorithm.

The purpose of this paper is to re‐examine the solution methodology to the facility grouping problem in group technology originally outlined by Mukhopadhyay et al. The aim of this re‐examination is to attempt to resolve some of the problems associated with the original solution methodology and to provide the system designer with an improved technique for the creation of an efficient initial system design solution. Cellular manufacture by its very nature requires work‐part transfer both within a machine cell and in some instances between machine cells. By utilising a design methodology which seeks to minimise work‐part transfer, these non‐value but cost adding tasks are kept to a minimum, thereby providing a faster throughput time and lower operational costs for companies who use cellular manufacturing systems in their production operations.

In approach, the technique advocated parallels the possible alternative solution method suggested by John et al. to resolve the problem of edge ranking ties which exists in the original Mukhopadhyay et al. solution technique. Presented and discussed in this contribution is a revised flow direction weighting scheme (FDWS) which simplifies the solution input data requirements and overcomes a perceived disadvantage in the earlier scheme outlined by John et al. The methodology outlined in the paper is subsequently evaluated for its generic nature, applicability and effectiveness via the use of previously published synthetic production data, and the findings compared to the results determined by several alternative approaches to the problem.

The development and application of the FDWS to cellular manufacturing system design is outlined in the paper and the usefulness of the technique is subsequently examined and compared to the results found for several competing methods. The approach provides for the identification of improved solutions to the test problems examined in both of the earlier contributions by Mukhopadhyay et al., and John et al. In addition, the results show that irrespective of the assessment criteria used, the FDWS technique provides solutions that are comparable to or better than the alternative approaches examined.

The proposed FDWS technique further contributes to the existing knowledge base on cellular manufacturing system design. It can provide good initial solution guidance for manufacturing system designers and thereby reduce the time required to achieve an acceptable and cost efficient design for a cellular production system.