Therefore, if product type i is stored at bay k, then the total material handling cost with dock j due to this storage is d*W. We define the assignment decision variables x as binary variables to represent whether or not product type i is assigned to bay k. x f1, if assignment was made: 0, if no assignment was made) The warehouse layout problem can now be formulated as the rollowing integer ming(IP) problem: rogram(1) Minimize Wy summed over i, jand k Subject to 1a) xki An summed over k 1 to inilnity, for all(1b) summed over i 1 to number of product types, for all(1c) xki 11, 0) for al and all k This objective seeks to minimize the material handling cost between the assigned storage areas and the warehouse docks over all product types. The constraint(1a) states that only Ai bays are assigned for each product type i. Constraint(1b) states that only une product type can be assigned per bay This formulation is an IP problem and can be olved with an IP algorithm. (For more details, please see"Discrete Location and Layout Problems" by Francis.) In this applicalion, however, we will consider a special case of une objeclive funclion(1) lhal can be solved very efficiently using a greedy method. Recall that We represents the amount of a particular product type i per storage bay that ravels lo and from a particular dock j. We assume thal lhe m by n malrix W IVWit factors; that is, there exist numbers ci and B, such that a B for all i and all j