A graph-theoretic-based meta-heuristic algorithm for solving cooperative dynamic facility layout problems

The dynamic facility layout problem (DFLP) is related to location of all facilities of a plant in a dynamic environment. Most of the existing models for this problem ignore competitive or cooperative reactions to one's action. In a recent work, the assumption of independency between parameters of material handling cost function has been relaxed and a game model has been presented. Two main shortcomings exist in this work. In one side, cooperation between decision makers is ignored. This matter could result to remove some better solutions that are not Nash equilibrium. On the other hand, computing Nash equilibrium takes much time. Then, Nash equilibrium maybe results in expensive solutions in cooperative conditions. In this paper, this real assumption is considered and by modelling the problem as a multi-criteria shortest path problem, a Pareto optimal solution is obtained. The numerical experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed model and solution method.