A multigoal heuristic for facilities design problems: MUGHAL

Abstract This paper deals with the minimization of an objective function which incorporates two conflicting criteria; cost minimization and closeness rating maximization, for facilities design problems. The objective function represents the difference of materials handling cost and the closeness rating with predefined weights assigned to both criteria. A heuristic approach is developed which takes an initial layout and improves it step by step using a pairwise exchange routine.