This paper presents a new methodology for determining suboptimum relative location patterns for physical facilities. It presents a computer program governed by an algorithm which determines how relative location patterns should be altered to obtain sequentially the most improved pattern with...

Evolution in models for problem solving is inevitable and desirable; as goals are achieved (or problems solved) new, more fundamental or telling, problems are identified leading to model revisions and better problem solutions. The speed of the evolution is dependent on two major factors: the...

The relative location of facilities in a functional layout has been determined under the criterion of materials handling cost minimization. Recent advances in analytical methods have provided superior solutions within this criterion hut the validity of certain underlying assumptions must be...

Some manufacturing firms, particularly in the high-technology sector, have production processes which are characterized by very low initial yields followed by steady "experience" based yield improvement. Material Requirements Planning literature reveals that MRP implementations are seldom...