Manufacturing Network Design: A Mathematical Programming Approach

Marc Paquet, Alain Martel, and Benoit Montreuil
CENTOR Research Center
Laval University, Quebec City, Canada


This paper presents an optimization methodology to design a network of manufacturing facilities producing several products, with an extended bill of material, under deterministic demands. Starting from the current state of the manufacturing network, the competencies of the available resources and a set of potential expansion/redeployment options, the model determines the facilities to open, close or reconfigure, the mission of each facility, and the resources required to operate the facilities. The resources explicitly considered include manpower and machinery. The approach also takes economies of scale and scope into account. A MIP model is formulated, a solution method is proposed and computational results are presented.