Solution procedures for the dynamic facility layout problem

Existing optimal solution procedures for the dynamic facility layout problem require the repeated solution of quadratic assignment problems within the framework of a dynamic program. The computational requirements for this problem necessitate the development of efficient algorithms for special cases of the problem and strong bounds for the general case of the problem. The concept of incomplete dynamic programming is applied to the dynamic facility layout problem to find the optimal solution to the problem with fixed rearrangement costs at exceptionally reduced solution times. Heuristics are also developed to provide a solution methodology for larger problems. A lower bound is developed for the general problem that dominates all existing bounds, and it is shown how the bound can be used as an initial test for optimality before the dynamic program is solved. Finally, the incomplete dynamic programming methodology is extended to find an upper bound for the general problem that dominates all previous bounds.