SOLVING JOB-SHOP LAYOUT PROBLEM BY ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION

Abstract

In the present work the facility layout problem is being solved for a job shop type layout. In a job shop, the interdepartmental material flow is usually large enough and hence the relative placement of the departments is a very important problem, which if solve properly might result in huge savings in material handling costs and enable greater ease in carrying out the manufacturing operations. The objective may be stated as the formulation of an algorithmic approach, which will allow facility layout problems to be solved for multiple• factors, handle qualitative and quantitative factors simultaneously, and a meta-heuristic, which will generate a good facility layout quickly. A new optimization technique known as ant colony . optimization technique is gaining momentum, it is a multi-agent approach, and is found effective in solving combinatorial optimization problem. A sample problem is taken to illustrate and compare the results obtained by this technique, with the results obtained by other heuristics.