The computerized relative allocation of facilities technique (CRAFT) is a computer-based improvement algorithm that starts from an existing facility layout and swaps department locations pairwise to reduce total material handling cost based on distance and flow data.
CRAFT is a layout improvement algorithm used in facility design. You feed it an existing layout, the flow of materials between departments (how many trips or how much volume moves), and the cost per unit of distance. The algorithm then estimates total material handling cost (basically flow times distance times cost) and tests what happens if you swap the positions of two or three departments at a time. If a swap lowers the total cost, CRAFT keeps it and repeats the process until no further swap helps.
The key thing to understand is that CRAFT is a heuristic improvement method, not an exact optimizer. It does not search every possible layout (that would be impossible for large problems). Instead it makes locally good swaps starting from your initial layout, which means the final answer depends partly on where you started. That makes it fast and practical for the multi-department layout problems you'll see in production planning, even if it doesn't guarantee the single best arrangement.
This sits in Unit 6.2, Layout Planning Models and Algorithms, where you learn how to arrange machines, workstations, and storage areas to optimize workflow. CRAFT is one of the classic computerized tools for that job, and it shows up alongside Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) as a way to turn flow and cost data into an actual arrangement. Understanding it teaches you the bigger idea behind layout optimization: minimize material handling cost, and use a structured method instead of guessing. It also gives you a concrete example of how heuristics trade guaranteed optimality for speed, a tradeoff that runs through a lot of industrial engineering.
Keep studying Intro to Industrial Engineering Unit 6
Visual cheatsheet
view galleryFacility Layout (Unit 6)
CRAFT is one specific tool for solving the facility layout problem. The layout is what you're designing; CRAFT is the algorithm that nudges it toward lower cost.
Transportation Cost (Unit 6)
The whole objective function CRAFT minimizes is material handling cost, which is driven by transportation cost between departments. Less distance times flow means lower cost, which is exactly what each swap chases.
Heuristic Methods (Unit 6)
CRAFT is a heuristic, meaning it finds a good solution fast without proving it's the absolute best. Knowing this explains why two CRAFT runs from different starting layouts can give different final answers.
Facility Layout Software Packages (Unit 6)
CRAFT was one of the original computerized layout packages, and modern software builds on the same idea of using flow data to evaluate and refine arrangements automatically.
Expect to use CRAFT in problem sets and exam questions where you're given a from-to flow chart, a distance matrix, and a cost rate, then asked to compute the total material handling cost of a layout. You may also be asked to identify which department swap reduces cost the most, or to explain why CRAFT is a heuristic and what limitation that creates (it can get stuck at a local solution that depends on the starting layout). Conceptual questions often ask you to compare CRAFT with construction methods or with SLP, so be ready to explain that CRAFT improves an existing layout rather than building one from scratch.
SLP is a structured procedure that builds a layout from relationship diagrams and qualitative closeness ratings, often used when you don't have hard flow numbers. CRAFT is a quantitative computer algorithm that improves an existing layout using actual flow and cost data. SLP designs; CRAFT optimizes.
CRAFT stands for Computerized Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique, and it improves an existing layout by swapping department locations to lower material handling cost.
Its objective is to minimize total material handling cost, calculated as flow times distance times unit cost between departments.
CRAFT is an improvement heuristic, not an exact optimizer, so the final layout depends on the starting layout you give it.
It can only get stuck at a locally good solution, which is why running it from different initial layouts may produce different results.
On problem sets you'll typically use a from-to flow chart and a distance matrix to compute layout cost and evaluate swaps.
It's a computer-based layout improvement algorithm called CRAFT that starts with an existing facility layout and swaps department locations two or three at a time to reduce total material handling cost, using flow and distance data.
No. CRAFT is a heuristic, so it finds a good improved layout quickly but does not guarantee the absolute best one. Its answer depends on the starting layout, which is why you might run it several times from different starting points.
SLP builds a layout from scratch using closeness relationships and qualitative ratings, while CRAFT improves an existing layout using quantitative flow and cost data. SLP is a design procedure; CRAFT is an optimization algorithm.
You need an initial layout, a from-to flow chart showing material movement between departments, a distance matrix between department locations, and a cost per unit of distance. CRAFT combines these to compute and minimize total handling cost.
Checking every possible layout is computationally impossible for large problems, so CRAFT limits each step to pairwise (or three-way) swaps. This keeps it fast while still steadily reducing material handling cost.