Sharing clearances to improve machine layout

Abstract

This paper considers a double-row layout problem with shared clearances in the context of semiconductor manufacturing. By sharing some clearances, reductions in both layout area and material handling cost of approximately 7–10% are achieved. Along with minimal clearances for separating adjacent machines, clearances that can be shared by adjacent machines are considered. The shared clearances may be located on either or both sides of machines. A mixed integer linear programming formulation of this problem is established, with the objective to minimise both material flow cost and layout area. A hybrid approach combining multi-objective tabu search and heuristic rules is proposed to solve it. Computational results show that the hybrid approach is very effective for this problem and finds machine layouts with reduced areas and handling costs by exploiting shared clearances.

Keywords:

• facility layout
• double-row layout problem
• multi-objective optimisation
• tabu search
• heuristic rules

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 61374204.