A case study on using evolutionary algorithms to optimize bakery production planning

The production of bakery goods is strictly time sensitive due to the complex biochemical processes during dough fermentation, which leads to special requirements for production planning and scheduling. Instead of mathematical methods scheduling is often completely based on the practical experience of the responsible employees in bakeries. This sometimes inconsiderate scheduling approach often leads to sub-optimal performance of companies. This paper presents the modeling of the production in bakeries as a kind of no-wait hybrid flow-shop following the definitions in Scheduling Theory, concerning the constraints and frame conditions given by the employed processes properties. Particle Swarm Optimization and Ant Colony Optimization, two widely used evolutionary algorithms for solving scheduling problems, were adapted and used to analyse and optimize the production planning of an example bakery. In combination with the created model both algorithms proved capable to provide optimized results for the scheduling operation within a predefined runtime of 15 min.     

一种遗传蚁群算法的机器人路径规划方法

研究遗传算法和蚁群算法可作为新兴的智能优化算法,在解决多目标、非线性的组合优化问题上表现出了传统优化算法无可比拟的优越性。基于将两种智能优化算法动态融合的思想提出了一种新的遗传蚁群算法(GA-ACO)。与已有的将遗传算子引入蚁群算法的结合方式不同之处在于,GA-ACO算法第一阶段采用了遗传算法生成初始信息素分布,在第二阶段采用蚁群算法求出最优解,从而有效地结合了遗传算法的快速收敛性和蚁群算法的信息正反馈机制。仿真结果表明,在具有深度陷阱的特殊障碍物环境下,应用GA-ACO算法求解机器人路径规划问题可以得到较好的的结果。     

A modified genetic algorithm approach for scheduling of perfect maintenance in distributed production scheduling

Distributed Scheduling (DS) problems have attracted attention by researchers in recent years. DS problems in multi-factory production are much more complicated than classical scheduling problems because they involve not only the scheduling problems in a single factory, but also the problems in the higher level, which is: how to allocate the jobs to suitable factories. It mainly focuses on solving two issues simultaneously: (i) allocation of jobs to suitable factories and (ii) determination of the corresponding production schedules in each factory. Its objective is to maximize system efficiency by finding an optimal plan for a better collaboration among various processes. However, in many papers, machine maintenance has usually been ignored during the production scheduling. In reality, every machine requires maintenance, which will directly influence the machine's availability, and consequently the planned production schedule. The objective of this paper is to propose a modified genetic algorithm approach to deal with those DS models with maintenance consideration, aiming to minimize the makespan of the jobs. Its optimization performance has been compared with other existing approaches to demonstrate its reliability. This paper also tests the influence of the relationship between the maintenance repairing time and the machine age to the performance of scheduling of maintenance during DS in the studied models.     

A comparative study of the improvement of performance using a PSO modified by ACO applied to TSP

Swarm-inspired optimization has become very popular in recent years. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have attracted the interest of researchers due to their simplicity, effectiveness and efficiency in solving complex optimization problems. Both ACO and PSO were successfully applied for solving the traveling salesman problem (TSP). Performance of the conventional PSO algorithm for small problems with moderate dimensions and search space is very satisfactory. As the search, space gets more complex, conventional approaches tend to offer poor solutions. This paper presents a novel approach by introducing a PSO, which is modified by the ACO algorithm to improve the performance. The new hybrid method (PSO–ACO) is validated using the TSP benchmarks and the empirical results considering the completion time and the best length, illustrate that the proposed method is efficient.     

First steps to the runtime complexity analysis of ant colony optimization

The paper presents results on the runtime complexity of two ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms: ant system, the oldest ACO variant, and GBAS, the first ACO variant for which theoretical convergence results have been established. In both cases, as the class of test problems under consideration, a slight generalization of the well-known OneMax test function has been chosen. The techniques used for the runtime analysis of the two algorithms differ: in the case of GBAS, the expected runtime until the optimal solution is reached is studied by a direct bound estimation approach inspired by comparable results for the (1+1)$(1+1)$ evolutionary algorithm (EA). A runtime bound of order O(mlogm)$O(m\log m)$, where m   is the problem instance size, is obtained. In the case of ant system, the original discrete stochastic process is approximated by a suitable continuous deterministic process. The validity of the approximation is shown by means of a rigid convergence theorem exploiting a classical result from mathematical learning theory. Using this approximation, it is demonstrated that for the considered OneMax-type problems, a runtime of order O(mlog(1/ε))$O(m\log (1/\epsilon ))$ until reaching an expected relative   solution quality of 1-ε$1-\epsilon$, and a runtime of O(mlogm)$O(m\log m)$ until reaching the optimal   solution with high probability can be predicted. Our results are the first to show competitiveness in runtime complexity with (1+1$1+1$) EA on OneMax for a proper ACO algorithm.     

Using a greedy random adaptative search procedure to solve the cover printing problem

In this paper, the cover printing problem, which consists in the grouping of book covers on offset plates in order to minimize the total production cost, is discussed. As the considered problem is hard, we discuss and propose a greedy random adaptative search procedure (GRASP) to solve the problem. The quality of the proposed procedure is tested on a set of reference instances, comparing the obtained results with those found in the literature. Our procedure improves the best known solutions for some of these instances. Results are also presented for larger, randomly generated problems.     

Procedures for estimating desirable initial states of a production line: a comparative study

Two procedures for estimating initial states of a production line that ensure the line has a high probability of meeting the specified production target during a scheduled production shift are presented. The problem of determining desirable initial states is important in low variety, high volume production systems such as those from the automobile industry. One procedure is derived from design of experiments (DOE) theory whereas the other uses a genetic algorithm (GA). In the study it was determined that both procedures are straightforward to implement and produce good solutions to the problem. The results from the procedures are compared and their benefits and disadvantages are discussed.     

Project scheduling for minimizing temporary availability cost of rental resources and tardiness penalty of activities

This paper addresses the resource availability cost problem with rental resources where each activity has a given due date to be completed. In this problem setting, the required resources are temporarily rented to accomplish the corresponding activities where the paid fee for the rental resources depends on duration of their availability. In addition, each activity would be subjected to a tardiness penalty if its finish time surpasses its given due date. A mathematical model is presented for the problem and some features of its solution space are established. Also, a best-performed version of ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm based on Ant Colony System is developed to tackle this strongly NP-Hard problem. The proposed method consists a new compatible schedule generation scheme, a new resource based heuristic role and an efficient local search. In a comprehensive experimental effort, the proposed parameters-tuned approach is compared with the exact solutions obtained by GAMS on several small-scale instances, while results of a competitive metaheuristic based on Genetic Algorithm are employed to validate the developed ACO algorithm for the large-scale instances. Finally, effectiveness of the proposed ACO is analyzed using statistical tests and the impact of the crucial parameters on the resulting solutions is demonstrated.     

冷轧机组批量作业计划模型与算法

针对编制冷轧机组作业计划受到钢卷宽度跳跃、入口厚度跳跃和出口厚度跳跃等多个工艺约束的问题, 把排产过程归纳为非对称双旅行商问题, 建立了冷轧机组生产作业计划的Pareto多目标模型. 提出了基于Pareto非支配集的自适应多目标蚁群算法, 利用自适应蚁群算法和Pareto非支配集思想, 综合考虑多个目标, 自适应地提供蚂蚁路径搜索参数, 并对得到的非支配解集对应路径更新信息素, 引导蚂蚁向最优解集方向搜索, 最终提供多个可行的批量作业计划, 根据生产要求从中选择合适的最优排产结果. 利用某冷轧薄板厂实际的生产数据进行仿真实验, 表明模型与算法在冷轧机组批量作业计划编制过程中具有可行性.     

A genetic algorithm/mathematical programming approach to solve a two-level soft drink production problem

This study applies a genetic algorithm embedded with mathematical programming techniques to solve a synchronized and integrated two-level lot sizing and scheduling problem motivated by a real-world problem that arises in soft drink production. The problem considers a production process compounded by raw material preparation/storage and soft drink bottling. The lot sizing and scheduling decisions should be made simultaneously for raw material preparation/storage in tanks and soft drink bottling in several production lines minimizing inventory, shortage and setup costs. The literature provides mixed-integer programming models for this problem, as well as solution methods based on evolutionary algorithms and relax-and-fix approaches. The method applied by this paper uses a new approach which combines a genetic algorithm (GA) with mathematical programming techniques. The GA deals with sequencing decisions for production lots, so that an exact method can solve a simplified linear programming model, responsible for lot sizing decisions. The computational results show that this evolutionary/mathematical programming approach outperforms the literature methods in terms of production costs and run times when applied to a set of real-world problem instances provided by a soft drink company.     

Bi-objective optimization algorithms for joint production and maintenance scheduling: application to the parallel machine problem

This paper deals with the joint production and maintenance scheduling problem according to a new bi-objective approach. This method allows the decision maker to find compromise solutions between the production objectives and maintenance ones. Reliability models are used to take into account the maintenance aspect of the problem. The aim is to simultaneously optimize two criteria: the minimization of the makespan for the production part and the minimization of the system unavailability for the maintenance side. Two decisions are taken at the same time: finding the best assignment of n jobs to m machines in order to minimize the makespan and deciding when to carry out the preventive maintenance actions in order to minimize the system unavailability. The maintenance actions numbers as well as the maintenance intervals are not fixed in advance. Two evolutionary genetic algorithms are compared to find an approximation of the Pareto-optimal front in the parallel machine case. On a large number of test instances (more than 5000), the obtained results are promising.     

Ant colony optimization algorithm to solve for the transportation problem of cross-docking network

This paper addresses the transportation problem of cross-docking network where the loads are transferred from origins (suppliers) to destinations (retailers) through cross-docking facilities, without storing them in a distribution center (DC). We work on minimizing the transportation cost in a network by loading trucks in the supplier locations and then route them either directly to the customers or indirectly to cross-docking facilities so the loads can be consolidated. For generating a truck operating plan in this type of distribution network, the problem was formulated using an integer programming (IP) model and solved using a novel ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. We solved several numerical examples for verification and demonstrative purposes and found that our proposed approach finds solutions that significantly reduce the shipping cost in the network of cross-docks and considerably outperform Branch-and-Bound algorithm especially for large problems.     

A parallel membrane inspired harmony search for optimization problems: A case study based on a flexible job shop scheduling problem

Harmony search is an emerging meta-heuristic optimization algorithm that is inspired by musical improvisation processes, and it can solve various optimization problems. Membrane computing is a distributed and parallel model for solving hard optimization problems. First, we employed some previously proposed approaches to improve standard harmony search by allowing its parameters to be adaptive during the processing steps. Information from the best solutions was used to improve the speed of convergence while preventing premature convergence to a local minimum. Second, we introduced a parallel framework based on membrane computing to improve the harmony search. Our approach utilized the parallel membrane computing model to execute parallelized harmony search efficiently on different cores, where the membrane computing communication characteristics were used to exchange information between the solutions on different cores, thereby increasing the diversity of harmony search and improving the performance of harmony search. Our simulation results showed that the application of the proposed approach to different variants of harmony search yielded better performance than previous approaches. Furthermore, we applied the parallel membrane inspired harmony search to the flexible job shop scheduling problem. Experiments using well-known benchmark instances showed the effectiveness of the algorithm.     

AJ-System柔性辅助调度系统的设计及其开发

随着越来越多的企业采用多品种小批量的生产方式，企业生产过程日趋复杂化，如何进行生产作业计划调度是一个迫需解决的问题。从柔性设计的角度出发，围绕一个具体机械加工车间的实际生产状况，分别从规则库设计、启发式算法以及界面设计3个方面详细阐述了AJ-System系统的柔性设计方法，并简单介绍了系统的框架及其应用。这种柔性设计方法也为其它相关系统的开发提供借鉴。     

Application of ant colony, genetic algorithm and data mining-based techniques for scheduling

In this paper, we have proposed a novel use of data mining algorithms for the extraction of knowledge from a large set of flow shop schedules. The purposes of this work is to apply data mining methodologies to explore the patterns in data generated by an ant colony algorithm performing a scheduling operation and to develop a rule set scheduler which approximates the ant colony algorithm's scheduler. Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a paradigm for designing metaheuristic algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems. The natural metaphor on which ant algorithms are based is that of ant colonies. Fascinated by the ability of the almost blind ants to establish the shortest route from their nests to the food source and back, researchers found out that these ants secrete a substance called ‘pheromone’ and use its trails as a medium for communicating information among each other. The ant algorithm is simple to implement and results of the case studies show its ability to provide speedy and accurate solutions. Further, we employed the genetic algorithm operators such as crossover and mutation to generate the new regions of solution. The data mining tool we have used is Decision Tree, which is produced by the See5 software after the instances are classified. The data mining is for mining the knowledge of job scheduling about the objective of minimization of makespan in a flow shop environment. Data mining systems typically uses conditional relationships represented by IF-THEN rules and allowing the production managers to easily take the decisions regarding the flow shop scheduling based on various objective functions and the constraints.     

遗传算法在服装生产流水线平衡问题中的应用

将遗传算法应用于服装生产调度中，利用遗传算法的全局优化特点解决并行制造中的流水线平衡问题。并针对男式衬衫的生产工艺进行仿真，结果表明了该算法的有效性。     

Flow shop scheduling to minimize the total completion time with a permanently present operator: Models and ant colony optimization metaheuristic

This paper studies the one-operator m-machine flow shop scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the total completion time. In this problem, the processing of jobs and setup of machines require the continuous presence of a single operator. We compare three different mathematical formulations and propose an ant colony optimization based metaheuristic to solve this flow shop scheduling problem. A series of experiments are carried out to compare the properties of three formulations and to investigate the performance of the proposed ant colony optimization metaheuristic. The computational results show that (1) an assignment-based formulation performs best, and (2) the ant colony optimization based metaheuristic is a computationally efficient algorithm.     

Multiobjective constructive heuristics for the 1/3 variant of the time and space assembly line balancing problem: ACO and random greedy search

In this work we present two new multiobjective proposals based on ant colony optimisation and random greedy search algorithms to solve a more realistic extension of a classical industrial problem: time and space assembly line balancing. Some variants of these algorithms have been compared in order to find out the impact of different design configurations and the use of heuristic information. Good performance is shown after applying every algorithm to 10 well-known problem instances in comparison to NSGA-II. In addition, those algorithms which have provided the best results have been employed to tackle a real-world problem at the Nissan plant, located in Spain.     

A study on the use of heuristics to solve a bilevel programming problem

The bilevel programming problem is characterized as an optimization problem that has another optimization problem in its constraints. The leader in the upper level and the follower in the lower level are hierarchically related where the leader's decisions affect both the follower's payoff function and allowable actions, and vice versa. One difficulty that arises in solving bilevel problems is that unless a solution is optimal for the lower level problem, it cannot be feasible for the overall problem. This suggests that approximate methods could not be used for solving the lower level problem, as they do not guarantee that the optimal solution is actually found. However, from the practical point of view near‐optimal solutions are often acceptable, especially when the lower level problem is too costly to be exactly solved thus rendering the use of exact methods impractical. In this paper, we study the impact of using an approximate method in the lower level problem, discussing how near‐optimal solutions on the lower level can affect the upper level objective function values. This study considers a bilevel production‐distribution planning problem that is solved by two intelligent heuristics hierarchically related: ant colony optimization for solving the upper level problem, and differential evolution method to solve the lower level problem.     

A niched genetic algorithm to solve a pollutant emission reduction problem in the manufacturing industry: A case study

A multiobjective optimization approach to deal with a pollutant emission reduction problem in the manufacturing industry, through implementation of the best available technical options, is presented in this paper. More specifically, attention is focused on the industrial painting of wood and the problem under investigation is formulated as a bicriteria combinatorial optimization problem. A niched Pareto genetic algorithm based approach is used to determine sets of methods, tools and technologies, applicable both in the design and in the production phase, allowing to simultaneously minimize the total cost and maximize the total pollutant emission reduction.