Automated factory layout planning using Quantum Annealing (QuALyPlan)

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Jan C. Aurich
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 544507126

Due to the demand for customized products and the resulting shorter product life cycles, both the frequency and the requirements of factory planning processes are increasing. This is particularly true for factory layout planning, which is a central element of the factory planning process and comprises the geometric arrangement of the functional units of a factory and exerts a strong influence on the economic efficiency of the resulting production system. Existing manual layout planning methods depend on empirical knowledge and are limited in their manageable solution space. Computer-aided, exact solution methods are only practicable up to a certain number of functional units as well. Approximating methods lead to feasible solutions for larger problem dimensions, but as the problem size increases, the computational time required to generate an appropriate solution increases significantly. Advances in the field of quantum annealing make it feasible to solve even large-scale analytical optimization problems within a small-second to sub-second time range. However, the application of quantum annealing for factory layout planning has been rarely investigated up until now and will be explored in the project. For this purpose, the layout planning problem will be modeled as an energy minimization problem, which can be solved via quantum annealing. In addition, a methodology to improve the performance of the quantum annealing-based factory planning approach will be developed. Finally, a comparative evaluation with existing solution methods is performed, and the developed approach is made accessible to possible future users through an interactive action guide.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants