Strong mixed-integer formulations for the floor layout problem

Abstract

The floor layout problem (FLP) tasks a designer with positioning a collection of rectangular boxes on a fixed floor in such a way that minimizes total communication costs between the components. While several mixed-integer programming (MIP) formulations for this problem have been developed, it remains extremely challenging from a computational perspective. This work takes a systematic approach to constructing MIP formulations and valid inequalities for the FLP that unifies and recovers all known formulations for it. In addition, the approach yields new formulations that can provide a significant computational advantage and can solve previously unsolved instances. While the construction approach focuses on the FLP, it also exemplifies generic formulation techniques that should prove useful for broader classes of problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Layout
• integer programming

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Specifically, we add the N pairs (i, j) with the largest objective coefficient p_{i, j}. For the three-box inequalities, we choose the N triplets (i, j, k) which maximize p_{i, j} + p_{i, k} + p_{j, k}, and add the inequalities corresponding to all six paths (i.e. permutations) through (i, j, k).

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship [grant number 1122374], [grant number CMMI-1351619].