Extension adaptive method: An approach to support the configurable layout design

Reasonable layout configuration can make full use of existing resources of enterprises. The designation based on modular technology is generally used as a common method. Through the analysis of the module and the layout, the whole configuration should be scientific and rational. But in one module, there exists lots of the individuals, it could be difficult to find the one that suits the demand best, also there comes the situation that all existing individual may not match to the demand, these have become the important problems in the module design area. In this paper, as a new approach for the configurable layout design, the extension-adaptive method which is based on the extension theory is proposed. The whole method could be divided into three steps. Firstly, to the customer's demand, the adaptive function is introduced to evaluate the fitness of the modules and the individuals in the modules. It could see that the individual which has the biggest adaptive value to the demand could be the final result. Secondly, when there comes the situation that all the exist individual may not match to the demand as the adaptive value is less than 0, the extension transformation method is used to settle such problems. Thirdly, calculate the adaptive value of the transform individual again, the final result could be obtained. At last, a configurable layout design example for logistics enterprise is provided which shows that the adaptive design method achieves intelligent configuration in adaptive environment with significant rapidity and variety.