Facility Layout and Location

IE 474 is about deciding where things go: given a set of activities, products, or facilities and the flows between them, how do you place them in space to minimize cost, congestion, and wasted movement. You'll work through optimization models for continuous and discrete location problems, quadratic assignment formulations, and flow-based layout methods, with homeworks and a design-style project applying these tools to layout and warehouse problems. It builds on the optimization and probability backbone of the IE core and connects directly to operations and supply chain courses, since layout decisions are typically large capital commitments that constrain plant performance for years.