Automated layout of facilities of unequal areas

Common to the analytical techniques for automated layout of rectangular facilities of unequal areas is the problem of too rapid movement of the representative blocks to form a cluster. This phenomenon makes the converged designs too dependent on the initial layout and the order of movement of the blocks. A concepto of "controlled convergence" is introduced t solve this problem. Convergence is controlled by carrying out the optimization with the "envelop blocks" of sizes much larger than the actual facilities. The sizes of the envelop blocks are gradually reduced to the actual sizes of the facilities through the optimization cycles. Test results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented technique.