Designing a manufacturing cell system by assigning workforce

Purpose: In this paper, we have proposed a new model for designing a Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS) for minimizing the costs regarding a limited number of cells to be formed by assigning workforce. Design/methodology/approach: Pursuing mathematical approach and because the problem is NP-Hard, two meta-heuristic methods of Simulated Annealing (SA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms have been used. A small randomly generated test problem with real-world dimensions has been solved using simulated annealing and particle swarm algorithms. Findings: The quality of the two algorithms has been compared. The results showed that PSO algorithm provides more satisfactory solutions than SA algorithm in designing a CMS under uncertainty demands regarding the workforce allocation. Originality/value: In the most of the previous research, cell production has been considered under certainty production or demand conditions, while in practice production and demand are in a dynamic situations and in the real settings, cell production problems require variables and active constraints for each different time periods to achieve better design, so modeling such a problem in dynamic structure leads to more complexity while getting more applicability. The contribution of this paper is providing a new model by considering dynamic production times and uncertainty demands in designing cells.Peer Reviewe

Machine learning assisted optimization with applications to diesel engine optimization with the particle swarm optimization algorithm

A novel approach to incorporating Machine Learning into optimization routines is presented. An approach which combines the benefits of ML, optimization, and meta-model searching is developed and tested on a multi-modal test problem; a modified Rastragin\u27s function. An enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization method was derived from the initial testing. Optimization of a diesel engine was carried out using the modified algorithm demonstrating an improvement of 83% compared with the unmodified PSO algorithm. Additionally, an approach to enhancing the training of ML models by leveraging Virtual Sensing as an alternative to standard multi-layer neural networks is presented. Substantial gains were made in the prediction of Particulate matter, reducing the MMSE by 50% and improving the correlation R^2 from 0.84 to 0.98. Improvements were made in models of PM, NOx, HC, CO, and Fuel Consumption using the method, while training times and convergence reliability were simultaneously improved over the traditional approach

Evolutionary Algorithms and Computational Methods for Derivatives Pricing

This work aims to provide novel computational solutions to the problem of derivative pricing. To achieve this, a novel hybrid evolutionary algorithm (EA) based on particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and differential evolution (DE) is introduced and applied, along with various other state-of-the-art variants of PSO and DE, to the problem of calibrating the Heston stochastic volatility model. It is found that state-of-the-art DEs provide excellent calibration performance, and that previous use of rudimentary DEs in the literature undervalued the use of these methods. The use of neural networks with EAs for approximating the solution to derivatives pricing models is next investigated. A set of neural networks are trained from Monte Carlo (MC) simulation data to approximate the closed form solution for European, Asian and American style options. The results are comparable to MC pricing, but with offline evaluation of the price using the neural networks being orders of magnitudes faster and computationally more efficient. Finally, the use of custom hardware for numerical pricing of derivatives is introduced. The solver presented here provides an energy efficient data-flow implementation for pricing derivatives, which has the potential to be incorporated into larger high-speed/low energy trading systems