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• Information Fusion
• Congestion in Facilities Location and Layout
• Facility Layout (Re)Design
• Agile Manufacturing
• Real-Time Visualization
• Sensor Networks
• Facilities Design and Cellular Manufacturing
• Operations of Production Systems
• Variant Design
• IE 684: Networks, Routing, and Logistics
• IE 661: Scheduling Theory
• IE 620: Agile Manufacturing
• IE 505: Production Planning and Control
• IE 504: Facilities Design
• IE 500: Special Topics: Logistics and Supply-Chain Management
• IE 327: Facilities Design
• IE 320: Engineering Economy
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National Science Foundation
Congestion in Facilities Location and Layout: Deterministic
and Stochastic Models
•Description
•Objectives
•Personnel
•Papers and Talks
Description |
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The project aims at developing a common theory base to model movement and
resultant congestion in the context of facilities location and facilities
layout. The motivation stems from the fact that the two bodies of literature
in facility layout and facility location have generally evolved separately
-- facility layout deals with the simultaneous placement of multiple finite
area entities such as departments or cells, while facility location deals
with the placement of infinitesimal-sized facilities, perhaps in the presence
of finite-sized barriers to travel or forbidden regions for new location.
The objective is to produce a superior class of models (over the traditional
centroid distance and unit cost measures) that are expected to provide better
performance in real-life applications via the explicit consideration of slow-downs,
congestion, flow capacity, and accurate distances.
The research work has three main tasks.
The first one is called the Planar Facility Location Problem with Generalized
Congested Regions that advances and unifies existing restricted facility
location literature by common modeling of three types of closed and bounded
regions in the plane: Barriers, through which neither travel nor facility
location is permitted, Forbidden Regions in which facility location
is prohibited, and Congested Regions in which facility location is
prohibited but through which travel is permitted at an additional cost per
unit distance (denoted by a congestion factor). In the dynamic/stochastic
version of this problem the congestion factor might change with time of day
(to represent rush hour traffic) or be a random variable.
The second research task is called the Connection Location Problem.
We use the term "connection" in a generic sense to define a connected part
of a manufacturing facility or an urban flow network that links different
sets of departments/cells or facilities. The deterministic version
of this task concerns the specific problem of variable capacity sizing
and selection/location of connections within a facility layout/location
context in order to minimize the sum of the fixed connection installation
costs and proportional material movement costs in the material handing system
(MHS). The stochastic version of this task concerns selection/location
and the service rate of the connections (and to assign the flows) so as to
minimize the sum of the fixed connection installation costs, the queueing
delay cost, and the material movement cost in the MHS, that take into consideration
the congestion effects.
The third task is software development to embody the theoretical results
of the study as well as development of Educational material.
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Objectives |
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Intellectual Merits:
The first task would study the plant layout problem in which distance measures
vary in different sections of the plant, and also consider location problems
in a modeling framework that simultaneously allows for barriers, forbidden
regions and congested regions. The second task would allow for modeling of
aisle capacities and placement and add significantly to the limited literature
available in this area. This task will introduce and research a new concept
in location theory relative to connections. The third task would create a
software that would be the first in the plant layout area to allow for detailed
specificity on distance measurement, and unique from a location perspective
to allow simultaneous consideration of generalized congested regions. It
would also address connection sizing/location.
Broader Impacts:
Training of two doctoral and two masters students and generation of
about five articles in premier scientific journals and also associated teaching
materials. Involvement of students from underrepresented groups to participate
in this project (through SUNY Alliance for Minority Participation program).
Undergraduate student participation to be included via an REU supplement.
On the application front, the project will provide practitioners with a readily
available tool (software) for location/layout design. The broad dissemination
of our work is to be achieved with research publications, and embodying those
concepts in instructional material and software for outreach to participants
beyond the home institution's boundary.
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Personnel |
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Investigators:
Dr. Rakesh Nagi, Professor
Department of Industrial Engineering
State University of New York at Buffalo
420 Bell Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-2050
U.S.A.
Telephone: (716) 645-2357
FAX: (716) 645-3302
E-mail: nagi@buffalo.edu
Dr. Rajan Batta, Professor
Department of Industrial Engineering
State University of New York at Buffalo
420 Bell Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-2050
U.S.A.
Telephone: (716) 645-2357
FAX: (716) 645-3302
E-mail: batta@eng.buffalo.edu
Graduate Students:
- Min Zhang; Ph.D. 2007. "Designing the Layout and Routing for a Manufacturing Facility to Mitigate Workflow Congestion." (co-advised with Rajan Batta). Currently: Operations Research Analyst, Avis Budget Group, Inc.
- Melih Temel: Ph.D. Student, "Warehouse Layout, Order Picking and Sorting." Department of Industrial Engineering,
University at Buffalo.
- Simin Huang: Simin Huang; PhD 2004. "The Connection Location and Sizing Problem: Models, Methods and Applications to Supply Chain Design." (co-advised with Rajan Batta). Currently: Associate Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University China.
- Avijit Sarkar: Ph.D. 2004, "Finite-Size Facility Placement in the Presence of Generalized Congested Regions." (co-advised with Rajan Batta). Position: Position: Assistant Professor, School of Business, University of California, Redlands CA.
- Hari Kelachankuttu: M.S. 2003, "Contour Line Construction for a New Rectangular Facility in an Existing Layout with Rectangular Departments."
Undergraduate Students:
- Lisa Murawski (2004), Senior BS Student, Department of Industrial Engineering, University at Buffalo.
- Shlagha Jain (2006), Senior BS Student, Department of Industrial Engineering, University at Buffalo.
- TBD
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Papers and Talks
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Papers:
Journal Papers accepted:
- Zhang, M., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "Modeling of Workflow Congestion and Optimization of Flow Routing in a Manufacturing/Warehouse Facility," Management Science, 2009, Vol. 55(2), pp. 267-280.
- Zhang, M., Savas, S., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "Facility Placement with Sub-Aisle Design in an Existing Layout," to appear European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 197(16), August 2009, pp. 154-165. Download(PDF)
- Sarkar, A., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "Finding Rectilinear Least Cost Paths in the Presence of Convex Polygonal Congested Regions," to appear Computers and Operations Research, 2009, Vol. 36(2), pp. 2009. Download(PDF)
- Kelachankuttu, H., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "Contour Line Construction for a New Rectangular Facility in an Existing Layout with Rectangular Departments," European Journal of Operational Research, 2007, Vol. 180, pp. 149-162. Download(PDF)
- Sarkar, A., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "Planar Area Location/Layout Problem in the Presence of Generalized Congested Regions with the Rectilinear Distance Metric," IIE Transactions on Design and Manufacturing, 2005, Vol. 37(1), pp. 35-50. Download(PDF)
- Huang, S., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "Distribution Network Design: Selection and Sizing of Congested Connections," Naval Research Logistics, 2005, Vol. 52, pp. 701-712. Download(PDF)
- Huang, S., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "Simultaneous Siting and Sizing of Distribution Centers on a Plane," accepted to Annals of Operations Research, July 2005. Download(PDF)
- Sarkar, A., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "Placing a Finite Size Facility with a Center Objective on a Rectilinear Plane with Barriers," European Journal of Operational Research, 2007, Vol. 179, pp. 1160-1176. Download(PDF)
Journal Papers submitted:
- Huang, S., Batta, R. and Nagi, R. "An Integrated Model for Space Determination and Site Selection of Distribution Centers," submitted European Journal of Operational Research, Jan 2009.Download(PDF)
Talks:
- Zhang, M., Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "Alleviate Congestion in a Facility Layout: Reroute Flows, Relocate Departments or a Combination of Both?," invited (sponsored by Location Analysis cluster) presentation in the INFORMS Fall 2005 Conference, San Francisco CA, November 2005.
- Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "A Strategic Model for Distribution Center Space Sizing and Location," 8th International Material Handling Research Colloquium, Graz, Austria, June 2004.
- Sarkar, A., Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "The Planar Area Location/Layout Problem," 13th Industrial Engineering Research Conference, Houston TX, May 2004.
- Sarkar, A., Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "Finding Rectilinear Least Cost Paths with Convex Polygonal Congested Regions," invited (sponsored by Location Analysis cluster) presentation in the INFORMS Fall 2004 Conference, Denver CO, October 2004.
- Huang, S., Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "Integrated Location and Sizing of Distribution Centers on a Plane," invited (sponsored by Transportation Science & Logistics cluster) presentation in the INFORMS Fall 2004 Conference, Denver CO, October 2004.
- Kelachankuttu, H., Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "Contour line construction for a new rectangular facility in an existing layout with rectangular departments," invited (Facility Planning and Design) presentation in the 13th Industrial Engineering Research Conference, Houston TX, May 2004.
- Huang, S., Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "Selection and Space Requirement for Congested Connections," invited (sponsored by Location Analysis cluster) planned presentation in the INFORMS Fall 2003 Conference, Atlanta GA, October 2003.
- Sarkar, A., Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "Planar Facility Location and Placement in the Presence of Generalized Congested Regions," invited (sponsored by Location Analysis cluster) planned presentation in the INFORMS Fall 2003 Conference, Atlanta GA, October 2003.
- Huang, S., Batta, R. and Nagi, R., "Selection and Sizing of Congested Connections for a Transportation Network," invited presentation in the EURO/INFORMS Joint International Meeting, Istanbul Turkey, July 2003.
Poster:
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