Combining facility layout redesign and dynamic routing for job-shop assembly operations

Abstract

This paper presents a hybrid approach for facility layout redesign and dynamic job routing. More specifically, based on the source of uncertainty, the facility layout problem is split into two sub-problems and dealt with by two modules: re-layout and find-route. Genetic algorithm is used where changes may cause a layout redesign of the entire shop, while function blocks are utilised to find the best sequence of robots for the new conditions within the existing layout. The method is verified in a case study of a hypothetic robotic assembly shop.