We present a new framework for efficiently finding competitive solutions for the facility-layout problem. This framework is based on the combination of two new mathematical-programming models. The first model is a relaxation of the layout problem and is intended to find good starting points for the iterative algorithm used to solve the second model. The … Read more
We provide a concise review of the most prominent global optimization (GO) strategies currently available. This is followed by a discussion of GO software, test problems and several important types of applications, with additional pointers. The exposition is concentrated around topics related to continuous GO, although in certain aspects it is also pertinent to analogous … Read more
We propose new classes of globally convexized filled functions. Unlike the globally convexized filled functions previously proposed in literature, the ones proposed in this paper are continuously differentiable and, under suitable assumptions, their unconstrained minimization allows to escape from any local minima of the original objective function. Moreover we show that the properties of the … Read more
The floorplanning (or facility layout) problem consists in finding the optimal positions for a given set of modules of fixed area (but perhaps varying dimensions) within a facility such that the distances between pairs of modules that have a positive connection cost are minimized. This is a hard discrete optimization problem; even the restricted version … Read more