Note--A Note on "Lot Size Scheduling on a Single Machine for Stochastic Demand" by Goyal

A Note on "Lot Size Scheduling on a Single Machine for Stochastic Demand" by Goyal (Goyal, S. K. 1973. Lot size scheduling on a single machine for stochastic demand. Management Sci. 19 1322-1325).

A Cluster-Analytic Approach to Facility Layout

Due to the combinatorial nature of the facility layout problem, current heuristic computer procedures do not always provide better solutions than visual methods. A new algorithm, FLAC (Facility Layout by Analysis of Clusters), is described which emulates the visual methods used by industrial engineers in solving facility layout problems. Initially side-stepping the combinatorial nature of the problem, FLAC is found to perform well in problems with high as well as low flow dominance, and in the presence and absence of line dominance. Computation time is attractive, especially on larger problems.facilities/equipment planning: layout, statistics: cluster analysis, networks/graphs: flow algorithms

Comparison of Computer Algorithms and Visual Based Methods for Plant Layout

Increasing emphasis on the reduction of materials handling costs in the modern plant has led to research into new methods of planning the process type layout in such a way as to minimize these costs. This project compares the performances of three highly rated computer algorithms prescribed for the solution of the plant layout problem with the performances of selected human subjects using the manual and visual methods still used and recommended by industrial engineers for plant layout design. The objective of this comparison is to determine whether there is in fact an advantage to using one of the available computer programs to solve the problem, instead of designing the layout by traditional visual-based methods. These tests, performed under the control of a computer system which accurately recorded the solutions achieved by each subject, show not only that the computer algorithms do not perform better than selected human subjects in the design of plant layouts, but that the human subjects, without the benefit of any prescriptive help from a computer, actually achieve layouts which are stochastically better than those produced by the computer programs.

Communication

(1) "On a Paper by Scriabin and Vergin" by Elwood S. Buffa, Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles. (Comments on Scriabin, M., R. C. Vergin. 1975. Comparison of computer algorithms and visual based methods for plant layout. Management Sci. 22 (2) 172-181) (2) "Computer and Visual Methods for Plant Layout--A Rejoinder" by Michael Scriabin and Roger C. Vergin, Faculty of Management Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. (Comments about details of Scriabin, M., R. C. Vergin. 1975. Comparison of computer algorithms and visual based methods for plant layout. Management Sci. 22 (2) 172-181 where Buffa [Scriabin, M., R. C. Vergin. 1976. Computer and visual methods for plant layout--a rejoinder. Management Sci. 23 (1) 104] felt were defects in research design)