Shipyard facility layout optimization through the implementation of a sequential structure of algorithms

The objective of this work is to optimize a shipyard facility layout through required departments' closeness conditions to minimize total material handling cost. In order to resolve this type facility layout problem, departments' closeness conditions must be respected when the manufacturing and material handling processes require it according to the supply and movement requirements throughout production flow, especially when the activity requires material handling equipment of common use between departments. As a result of this work the optimization is achieved through the implementation of a stochastic sequential algorithm, comprising the following steps: 1) Topological Optimization from a Genetic Algorithm, 2) Transferring the centroid coordinates of each department from the topological grid to the geometrical grid from a computational procedure, and 3) Geometrical Optimization from a Stochastic Growth Algorithm, with a fine-tuning of the solution achieved using the Electre Method and a Local Search Method. Computational experiments were performed to prove the effectiveness of the system and evaluate the performance of each algorithm listed in the scope of the proposed solution. We have proved that the proposed Sequential Structure of Algorithms can successfully solve the problem. Computational experiments results are also presented in the supplementary material of this work.