A simulated annealing algorithm to find approximate Pareto optimal solutions for the multi-objective facility layout problem

In this article, we consider the facility layout problem which combines the objective of minimization of the total material handling cost and the maximization of total closeness rating scores. Multi-objective optimization is the way to consider the two objectives at the same time. A simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is proposed to find the non-dominated solution (Pareto optimal) set approximately for the multi-objective facility layout problem we tackle. The Pareto optimal sets generated by the proposed algorithm was compared with the solutions of the previous algorithms for multi-objective facility layout problem. The results showed that the approximate Pareto optimal sets we have found include almost all the previously obtained results and many more approximate Pareto optimal solutions.