| This dissertation presents models of material handling systems in manufacturing system environments and block layout approaches for facility layout design. Queueing modeling of material handling systems arises in the context of recent initiatives to integrate material handling as part of the layout design process. However, previous queueing models for material handling systems have had unrealistic assumptions. This dissertation investigates the modeling approaches used in recent literature and introduces a modeling approach that more closely represents material handling systems typically used in actual manufacturing environments.; In graph theoretic approach to facility layout design, the focus has been mainly on generating a structured sub-graph while there has been little attention to the procedure that converts a structure sub-graph to a block layout. This dissertation proposes a hierarchical procedure that systematically converts a structured sub-graph to a final block layout.; In addition, this dissertation presents a methodology to generate a block layout based on a new representation of a block layout. As part of our methodology, a robust root finding algorithm to compute the coordinates and dimensions of all departments in the facility is developed. Unlike other block layout methodologies in the literature, the proposed methodology generates a block layout without any structural restrictions.; This dissertation addresses several key issues in material handling system design and facility layout. As such, it provides critical pieces for the knowledge base in this research area. |
