Genetic search for solving construction site-level unequal-area facility layout problems

A construction site represents a conflux of concerns, constantly calling for a broad and multi-criteria approach to solving problems related to site planning and design. As an important part of site planning and design, the objective of site-level facility layout is to allocate appropriate locations and areas for accommodating temporary site-level facilities such as warehouses, job offices, workshops and batch plants. Depending on the size, location and nature of the project, the required temporary facilities may vary. The layout of facilities can influence on the production time and cost in projects. In this paper, a construction site-level facility layout problem is described as allocating a set of predetermined facilities into a set of predetermined places, while satisfying layout constraints and requirements. A genetic algorithm system, which is a computational model of Darwinian evolution theory, is employed to solve the facilities layout problem. A case study is presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the genetic algorithm system in solving the construction site-level facility layout problems.