Evaluation of an application of graph theory to the layout problem

When designing a facility layout it is desirable to obtain an optimum design which satisfies certain necessary relationships among departments. Recent research has indicated that applying graph theory to the layout problem can result in the development of improved solutions, but little can be found to indicate how much better the resultant solutions are. The objectives of this paper are to develop a graph theory approach based on research experience and suggestions of Moore, Carrie and Seppanen, to develop a general computer program implementing the procedure and to compare its performance with that of CRAFT, CORELAP and ALDEP. The comparisons are based upon the adjacency relationships satisfied in the resultant layouts. The procedure finds the graph G equivalent to the problem being solved and then generates one of its maximal spanning trees, which after being transformed to its ‘string’ equivalent, is used to extract a maximal planar sub-graph of G. The dual of this sub-graph represents the desired solu...