A two phase variable neighborhood search for the multi-product inventory routing problem

We address a multi-product inventory routing problem and propose a two-phase Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) metaheuristic to solve it. In the first phase, VNS is used to solve a capacitated vehicle routing problem at each period to find an initial solution without taking into account the inventory. In the second phase, we iteratively improve the initial solution while minimizing both the transportation and inventory costs. For this, we propose two different algorithms, a Variable Neighborhood Descent and a Variable Neighborhood Search. We present an heuristic and a Linear Programming formulation, which are applied after each local search move, to determine the amount of products to collect from each supplier at each period. During the exploration, we use priority rules for suppliers and vehicles, based on the current delivery schedule over the planning horizon. Computational results show the efficiency of the proposed two-phase approach.     

Variable neighborhood search for multi-objective resource allocation problems

The Resource Allocation Problem (RAP) is a classical problem in the field of operations management that has been broadly applied to real problems such as product allocation, project budgeting, resource distribution, and weapon-target assignment. In addition to focusing on a single objective, the RAP may seek to simultaneously optimize several expected but conflicting goals under conditions of resources scarcity. Thus, the single-objective RAP can be intuitively extended to become a Multi-Objective Resource Allocation Problem (MORAP) that also falls in the category of NP-Hard. Due to the complexity of the problem, metaheuristics have been proposed as a practical alternative in the selection of techniques for finding a solution. This study uses Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) algorithms, one of the extensively used metaheuristic approaches, to solve the MORAP with two important but conflicting objectives—minimization of cost and maximization of efficiency. VNS searches the solution space by systematically changing the neighborhoods. Therefore, proper design of neighborhood structures, base solution selection strategy, and perturbation operators are used to help build a well-balanced set of non-dominated solutions. Two test instances from the literature are used to compare the performance of the competing algorithms including a hybrid genetic algorithm and an ant colony optimization algorithm. Moreover, two large instances are generated to further verify the performance of the proposed VNS algorithms. The approximated Pareto front obtained from the competing algorithms is compared with a reference Pareto front by the exhaustive search method. Three measures are considered to evaluate algorithm performance: D1_R, the Accuracy Ratio, and the number of non-dominated solutions. The results demonstrate the practicability and promise of VNS for solving multi-objective resource allocation problems.     

资源受限项目调度问题的改进类电磁算法

在资源受限项目调度中,工序必须在特定时间窗口中执行。为此,在类电磁(EM)算法的基础上提出一种基于变邻域搜索(VNS)的改进类电磁算法(IEMA)。采用VNS作为IEMA的局部搜索策略,对EM算法中的电荷、合力以及粒子解移动的方式做改进。将IEMA应用于求解标准问题库PSPLIB,并与EM、IEM以及基于邻域搜索的改进类电磁算法IEM-NS进行比较分析,仿真结果表明,IEMA具有更好的求解性能。     

Combining the principles of variable neighborhood decomposition search and the fix&optimize heuristic to solve multi-level lot-sizing and scheduling problems

In this paper a new heuristic is proposed to solve general multi-level lot-sizing and scheduling problems. The idea is to cross-fertilize the principles of the meta-heuristic Variable Neighborhood Decomposition Search (VNDS) with those of the MIP-based Fix&Optimize heuristic. This combination will make it possible to solve the kind of problems that typically arise in the consumer goods industry due to sequence-dependent setups and shifting bottlenecks. In order to demonstrate the strength of this procedure, a GLSP variant for multiple production stages is chosen as a representative. With the help of artificial and real-world instances, the quality of the solution as well as the computational performance of the new procedure is tested and compared to a standard MIP-solver.     

Gaussian variable neighborhood search for continuous optimization

Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) has shown to be a powerful tool for solving both discrete and box-constrained continuous optimization problems. In this note we extend the methodology by allowing also to address unconstrained continuous optimization problems.Instead of perturbing the incumbent solution by randomly generating a trial point in a ball of a given metric, we propose to perturb the incumbent solution by adding some noise, following a Gaussian distribution. This way of generating new trial points allows one to give, in a simple and intuitive way, preference to some directions in the search space, or, contrarily, to treat uniformly all directions. Computational results show some advantages of this new approach.     

Variable neighborhood search for location routing

In this paper we propose various neighborhood search heuristics (VNS) for solving the location routing problem with multiple capacitated depots and one uncapacitated vehicle per depot. The objective is to find depot locations and to design least cost routes for vehicles. We integrate a variable neighborhood descent as the local search in the general variable neighborhood heuristic framework to solve this problem. We propose five neighborhood structures which are either of routing or location type and use them in both shaking and local search steps. The proposed three VNS methods are tested on benchmark instances and successfully compared with other two state-of-the-art heuristics.     

求解UCARPP问题的变邻域搜索算法

针对无向网络中带有收益值有容限的弧路径问题,提出一种变邻域搜索算法。生成需求边的有序列,以相同概率初始化每条边的方向,采用分割算法构造初始解,运用6种邻域结构进行广域搜索,使用局部搜索算法改进解,利用旋轮法选择邻域结构。实验结果表明,该算法能提高效率,避免早期陷入局部最优,稳定性较好。     

Variable Neighborhood Search based algorithms for high school timetabling

This work presents the application of Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) based algorithms to the High School Timetabling Problem. The addressed model of the problem was proposed by the Third International Timetabling Competition (ITC 2011), which released many instances from educational institutions around the world and attracted 17 competitors. Some of the VNS algorithm variants were able to outperform the winner of Third ITC solver, which proposed a Simulated Annealing – Iterated local Search approach. This result coupled with another reports in the literature points that VNS based algorithms are a practical solution method for providing high quality solutions for some hard timetabling problems. Moreover they are easy to implement with few parameters to adjust.     

Variable neighborhood search based approaches to a vehicle scheduling problem in agriculture

A vehicle scheduling problem (VSP) that arises from sugar beet transportation within minimum working time under the set of constraints reflecting a real‐life situation is considered. A mixed integer quadratically constrained programming (MIQCP) model of the considered VSP and reformulation to a mixed integer linear program (MILP) are proposed and used within the framework of Lingo 17 solver, producing optimal solutions only for small‐sized problem instances. Two variants of the variable neighborhood search (VNS) metaheuristic—basic VNS (BVNS) and skewed VNS (SVNS) are designed to efficiently deal with large‐sized problem instances. The proposed VNS approaches are evaluated and compared against Lingo 17 and each other on the set of real‐life and generated problem instances. Computational results show that both BVNS and SVNS reach all known optimal solutions on small‐sized instances and are comparable on medium‐ and large‐sized instances. In general, SVNS significantly outperforms BVNS in terms of running times.     

Solving multifacility Huff location models on networks using metaheuristic and exact approaches

In this paper we consider multifacility Huff facility location problem on networks. First, we introduce a slight modification of the existing mixed integer nonlinear mathematical model and confirm its validity by using the solver for nonlinear optimization, KNITRO. Second, since the problem is NP-hard, we develop three methods that are based on three metaheuristic principles: Variable Neighborhood Search, Simulated Annealing, and Multi-Start Local Search. Based on extensive computational experiments on large size instances (up to 800 customers and 100 potential facilities), it appears that VNS based heuristic outperforms the other two proposed methods.     

A variable neighborhood search algorithm for the surgery tactical planning problem

We address the tactical planning problem of surgeries that consists in building an admission plan of patients over a medium-term horizon planning so as to minimize over and under utilization of several resources such as operating theaters, beds and nursing care, compared with their target level of utilization. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear program for which exact solution methods fail to find an optimal solution in a reasonable execution time. We develop a Variable Neighborhood Search algorithm and show its ability to provide high quality solutions in short computational running times compared with CPLEX for numerous real-sized instances based on the surgery planning problem in a Dutch cardiothoracic center. Furthermore, with few parameters' settings and low computational memory requirements, this approach may easily be implemented in a decision support system for hospitals.     

Variable neighborhood descent with iterated local search for routing and wavelength assignment

In this work we treat the Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) with focus on minimizing the number of wavelengths to route demand requests. Lightpaths are used to carry the traffic optically between origin-destination pairs. The RWA is subjected to wavelength continuity constraints, and a particular wavelength cannot be assigned to two different lightpaths sharing a common physical link. We develop a Variable Neighborhood Descent (VND) with Iterated Local Search (ILS) for the problem. In a VND phase we try to rearrange requests between subgraphs associated to subsets of a partition of the set of lightpath requests. In a feasible solution, lightpaths belonging to a subset can be routed with the same wavelength. Thus, the purpose is to eliminate one subset of the partition. When VND fails, we perform a ILS phase to disturb the requests distribution among the subsets of the partition. An iteration of the algorithm alternates between a VND phase and a ILS phase. We report computational experiments that show VND-ILS was able to improve results upon powerful methods proposed in the literature.     

Variable neighborhood search for the p-median

Consider a set L of potential locations for p facilities and a set U of locations of given users. The p-median problem is to locate simultaneously the p facilities at locations of L in order to minimize the total transportation cost for satisfying the demand of the users, each supplied from its closest facility. This model is a basic one in location theory and can also be interpreted in terms of cluster analysis where locations of users are then replaced by points in a given space. We propose several new Variable Neighborhood Search heuristics for the p-median problem and compare them with Greedy plus Interchange, and two Tabu Search heuristics.     

Variable neighborhood search for a planning problem with resource constraints in a health simulation center

Applied Intelligence - In this paper we propose the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) algorithm SimULS to solve a planning problem in the Health Simulation Center SimUSanté. This center...     

MaxMinMin p-dispersion problem: A variable neighborhood search approach

In this work we have developed a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) method in order to solve the MaxMinMin p-dispersion problem, which adds a new type of plateau search mechanism to the classical VNS metaheuristic framework. Besides, several other contributions have been made to the basic VNS heuristic in terms of the ascent and perturbation functions. To the best of our knowledge this is the first application of the VNS to the MaxMinMin problem and our approach, compared to previous methods, finds or improves the results for all of the large-sized benchmarks with low computational efforts. Finding most of the proven optimal solutions in a fraction of a second, the robustness and quality of the solutions and the low complexity of the methods demonstrate the strength of the proposed heuristic solution procedures.     

Genetic-variable neighborhood search with thread replication for mobile cloud computing

The resource-intensive resettlement procedure and inherent restrictions of the wireless medium obstruct the understanding of faultless implementation in mobile cloud computing (MCC) surroundings. In MCC, transfer of thread execution to high end servers allows the processing of those jobs which demand more resources on the mobile equipment. Hence, implementing the application with stumpy cost, least overhead and non-obtrusive relocation is a demanding research area in MCC. Many scheduling mechanisms have been proposed so far to balance the load between the given set of mobile servers, but it is found to be NP-Hard problem. Therefore, evolutionary techniques are required to balance the load among mobile servers. Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been verified to be fine by jumble up the key values, but it becomes unsuccessful to strengthen the exploration in the rising areas. In Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS), local exploration technique is implemented continually to evaluate optimistic outcomes in neighborhood to attain local best solution. But VNS is still prone to premature convergence traps only because of limited search capability. Therefore hybridization with non-global finding techniques may conquer the limitations and guide the dominant search mechanisms to some extent. The GA along with VNS using thread replication (GVNSTR) is implemented to set stability of non-local searching and local utilization for an evolutionary processing period and get the optimized solution.     

Applying MOEAs to solve the static Routing and Wavelength Assignment problem in optical WDM networks

Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM) in optical networks has revolutionized the Telecommunication field. This technology is able to exploit the enormous bandwidth capability of this kind of networks, allowing communication between end users via all-optical WDM channels (lightpath). Given a set of demands, the problem of setting up lightpaths by routing and assigning a wavelength to each connection is known as Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) problem. There are two types of connection demands: static (demands are given in advance) and dynamic (demands are given in real-time). In this paper we present two different Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEA) with the aim of solving the static RWA problem. The first one is a population-based algorithm, the Differential Evolution (DE), but incorporating the Pareto Tournament concept (DEPT). The second one is a multiobjective version of the Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS), MO-VNS. In order to prove the goodness of our metaheuristics, we have compared them with the standard Fast Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II), typical heuristics in the Telecommunication field, and different varieties of Multiobjective Ant Colony Optimization Algorithms. On the whole, we conclude that our approaches have obtained very promising results.     

Routing of barge container ships by mixed-integer programming heuristics

We investigate the optimization of transport routes of barge container ships with the objective to maximize the profit of a shipping company. This problem consists of determining the upstream and downstream calling sequence and the number of loaded and empty containers transported between any two ports. We present a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation for this problem. The problem is tackled by the commercial CPLEX MIP solver and improved variants of the existing MIP heuristics: Local Branching, Variable Neighborhood Branching and Variable Neighborhood Decomposition Search. It appears that our implementation of Variable Neighborhood Branching outperforms CPLEX MIP solver both regarding the solution quality and the computational time. All other studied heuristics provide results competitive with CPLEX MIP solver within a significantly shorter amount of time. Moreover, we present a detailed case study transportation analysis which illustrates how the proposed approach can be used by managers of barge shipping companies to make appropriate decisions and solve real life problems.     

The optimization of warehouse location and resources distribution for emergency rescue under uncertainty

China is one of the countries that suffer the most natural disasters in the world. The situation of emergency response and rescue is extremely tough. Establishing the emergency warehouse is one of the important ways to cope with rapid-onset disasters. In this paper, a mixed integer programming (MIP) model based on time cost under uncertainty is proposed, which help solve the emergency warehouse location and distribution problem. Comprehensive consideration of factors such as time cost, penalty cost for lack of resources, alternative origins of resources from both suppliers and emergency warehouses, different means of transportation and multiple resources types are involved in our study. We also introduce uncertain scenarios to describe the severity of the disaster. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) and variable neighborhood search (VNS) are designed to solve the MIP model of different scales of instances. Numerous examples have been tested to compare two heuristics with commercial solver (CPLEX). Both of two algorithms can obtain the exact solution same as CPLEX in small-scale instances while show great performance on larger instances with 10 candidate warehouses, 25 disasters and 50 scenarios.     

Two metaheuristic approaches for solving multidimensional two-way number partitioning problem

In this paper, we address two metaheuristic approaches, a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) and an Electromagnetism-like metaheuristic (EM), on an NP-hard optimization problem: Multi-dimensional Two-way Number Partitioning Problem (MDTWNPP). MDTWNPP is a generalization of a Two-way Number Partitioning Problem (TWNPP), where a set of vectors is partitioned rather than a set of numbers. The simple k-swap neighborhoods allow an effective shaking procedure in the VNS search. The attraction–repulsion mechanism of EM is extended with a scaling procedure, which additionally moves EM points closer to local optima. Both VNS and EM use the same local search procedure based on 1-swap improvements. Computational results were obtained on 210 standard instances. Direct comparison with results from the literature confirm the significance of applying these methods to MDTWNPP.