General layout design synthesis using fuzzy logic

Synthesis of facility layout design is demonstrated for the general case by employing fuzzy logic. This method builds on a previous method developed by the authors for design of polytree structured layouts. As an extension of this earlier technique, a method for layout design with general networks is developed based on quantitative and qualitative measures and positional preferences, expressed as linguistic variables through fuzzy sets. This approach is compared with a traditional analytical technique. Similar solutions are found for three benchmark problems, and it is shown that the fuzzy logic methods provide reduced computational complexity. Conclusions are drawn regarding the potential usefulness of these methods for preliminary design where requirements are inexact.