Cut-tree construction for facility layout

The Gomory-Hu cut tree corresponding to a material flow graph provides important structural relationships to layout designers. The cut tree generation is not trivial to the programmer. In this paper, we present a simple technique which generates and constructs a cut tree of a given flow graph. The method differs from previous cut tree generation methods in the sense that its output also facilitates computer construction of the graph of the cut tree with only a few lines of additional coding, which makes its implementation attractive for computerized graph theoretic layout design approaches. The algorithm actually draws the cut tree automatically. Example graphs and the corresponding computer generated cut trees are illustrated. Also, an example is given where the cut tree information provides the optimal layout configuration.