A DESIGN METHODOLOGY FOR FRACTAL LAYOUT ORGANIZATION

This paper proposes a methodology for designing job shops under the fr actal layout organization that has been introduced as an alternative t o the more traditional function and product organizations. We first be gin with an illustration of how a fractal job shop is constituted from individual fractal cells. We then consider joint assignment of produc ts and their processing requirements to fractal cells, the layout of w orkstation replicates in a fractal cell and the layout of cells with r espect to each other. The main challenge in assigning flow to workstat ion replicates is that flow assignment is in itself a layout dependent decision problem. We confront this dilemma by proposing an iterative algorithm that updates layouts depending on flow assignments, and flow assignments based on layout. The proposed heuristic is computationall y feasible as evidenced by our experience with test problems taken fro m the literature. We conclude by showing how the methodologies develop ed in this paper have helped us evaluate fractal job shop designs thro ugh specification of fractal cells, assignment of processing requireme nts to workstation replicates, and development of processor level layo uts. This step has had the far-reaching consequence of demonstrating t he viability and the validity of the fractal layout organization.