Design of layouts for Cellular Manufacturing Systems (CMSs) has not received attention by researchers as much as cell formation in cellular manufacturing. In this paper a mathematical model, formulated as a multicriteria Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) is proposed for the design of layouts for CMSs with the objective of minimising the material handling cost (quantitative) and maximising the closeness rating (qualitative). A Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based tool called FUGEN, which makes use of crossover, mutation (inversion) and direct entry (elitism) with embedded fuzzy logic and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) models, is developed for the design of layouts for CMSs. An attempt is made to make the model practical by considering the production volume, transfer batch size and operational sequence of parts. The proposed tool is validated using an example from the literature. Copyright © 2009, Inderscience Publishers.