Solving the Unequal Area Dynamic Facility Layout Problem Using a Zone-Based Structure with a Two-Phase Matheuristic Approach

Abstract: 

The Dynamic Facility Layout Problem (DFLP) is designing a facility over a multi-period planning horizon where the interdepartmental material flows change over the planning periods due to frequent changes in product demands.  The DFLP in the continuous plane is a very challenging nonlinear optimization problem. This paper considers solving the unequal area Dynamic Facility Layout Problem (DFLP) using a zone-based structure. Zone-based layouts have significant advantages, such as being easily transferable to a detailed layout with innately included possible aisle structures; therefore, they can be fitted to the unique needs of the layout designers. The unequal area DFLP is modeled and solved using a zone-based structure, which is referred to as ZDFLP, where the dimensions of the departments and material handling system input/output (I/O) points are decision variables. A two-phase matheuristic, which directly operates on Problem ZDFLP without requiring an encoding scheme of the problem, is proposed to solve the ZDFLP with promising results.

Short Biography:

Dr Sadan Kulturel‐Konak is a Professor of Management Information Systems and the Director of the Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development (CEED) Center at Penn State Berks. Dr. Kulturel also has a courtesy appointment at Penn State Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Auburn University. Dr. Kulturel’s research focuses on modeling and optimizing complex systems using hybrid approaches combining heuristic methods and exact techniques from probability and operations research. The primary application areas of her research include designing and redesigning facilities to provide significant economic benefits for US firms. Dr. Kulturel is also interested in pedagogical research regarding entrepreneurship/STEM fields, such as professional skill development, innovative thinking skills, and gender differences in learning styles. She served as the elected president of INFORMS-Women in OR/MS (WORMS), the elected chair of INFORMS- Facility Logistics Special Interest Group, and the chair of the ASEE Middle Atlantic Section. She is currently an academic member of the College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE). She is an Associate Editor of the Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (Elsevier). She has been a principal investigator in several sponsored projects from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and VentureWell. She is a member of INFORMS, IEEE, and ASEE.