Enhancing Factory Layout Planning by Means of Generative Design

Decisions in factory planning, especially referring to the structure and layout of manufacturing systems and the corresponding infrastructure, are characterized as multi-dimensional and complex since they have major impact on long-term efficiency and flexibility. Generative Design became popular in topology optimization for components design but also in architecture and the facade construction. The underlying principles and optimization techniques are progressively made accessible to architects, planners and designers by an increasing number of modeling software, visual programming tools and libraries. However, in factory planning and manufacturing systems design the according research as well as industrial applications are almost completely missing. Therefore, the proposed presentation will comprise the current state of research, typical scenarios for the application of Generative Design and proposals for the integration in industrial applications in order to enhance factory layout planning.