Minimizing the total tardiness and makespan in an open shop scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times

We consider an open shop scheduling problem with setup and processing times separately such that not only the setup times are dependent on the machines, but also they are dependent on the sequence of jobs that should be processed on a machine. A novel bi-objective mathematical programming is designed in order to minimize the total tardiness and the makespan. Among several multi-objective decision making (MODM) methods, an interactive one, called the TH method is applied for solving small-sized instances optimally and obtaining Pareto-optimal solutions by the Lingo software. To achieve Pareto-optimal sets for medium to large-sized problems, an improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) is presented that consists of a heuristic method for obtaining a good initial population. In addition, by using the design of experiments (DOE), the efficiency of the proposed improved NSGA-II is compared with the efficiency of a well-known multi-objective genetic algorithm, namely SPEA-II. Finally, the performance of the improved NSGA-II is examined in a comparison with the performance of the traditional NSGA-II

Analysis of Opportunities and Challenges for R&D Management and the Role of the R&D Society for its Improvement – A Case Study in Iran

Research and Development (R&D) management in Iran is faced to many barriers and obstacles, in which R&D units are considered as the basic core of the product development and innovation. Due to structural shortcomings, a great number of organizations and industries have not been able to find their actual status. There are about different 1141 R&D units with a dispersion pattern in Iran. This paper considers and analyzes the R&D case study in one of the provinces located in the north part of Iran in order to enhance the potential R&D activities in respect with the industrialized areas and zones. In this province, there are about 2504 industrial units of which there are only 44 R&D units certified by the state government. However, there are limit numbers of these R&D units that are extensively active. This paper also addresses the current status in respect with the R&D activities to find out why there is a lack and depression of these activities in the industrial units. By considering the opportunity and challenges of these R&D units, there is a need to change these units to be active in order to quickly respond the market and demand requirements. Finally, a few alternative solutions and improvement plans are proposed, in which the Iranian R&D Society is responsible for supporting and succeeding these action plans towards the organization goals.R&D Management

A multi-objective model for designing a group layout of a dynamic cellular manufacturing system

This paper presents a multi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming model to design a group layout of a cellular manufacturing system in a dynamic environment, in which the number of cells to be formed is variable. Cell formation (CF) and group layout (GL) are concurrently made in a dynamic environment by the integrated model, which incorporates with an extensive coverage of important manufacturing features used in the design of CMSs. Additionally, there are some features that make the presented model different from the previous studies. These features include the following: (1) the variable number of cells, (2) the integrated CF and GL decisions in a dynamic environment by a multi-objective mathematical model, and (3) two conflicting objectives that minimize the total costs (i.e., costs of intra and inter-cell material handling, machine relocation, purchasing new machines, machine overhead, machine processing, and forming cells) and minimize the imbalance of workload among cells. Furthermore, the presented model considers some limitations, such as machine capability, machine capacity, part demands satisfaction, cell size, material flow conservation, and location assignment. Four numerical examples are solved by the GAMS software to illustrate the promising results obtained by the incorporated features

An archived multi-objective simulated annealing for a dynamic cellular manufacturing system

To design a group layout of a cellular manufacturing system (CMS) in a dynamic environment, a multi-objective mixed-integer non-linear programming model is developed. The model integrates cell formation, group layout and production planning (PP) as three interrelated decisions involved in the design of a CMS. This paper provides an extensive coverage of important manufacturing features used in the design of CMSs and enhances the flexibility of an existing model in handling the fluctuations of part demands more economically by adding machine depot and PP decisions. Two conflicting objectives to be minimized are the total costs and the imbalance of workload among cells. As the considered objectives in this model are in conflict with each other, an archived multi-objective simulated annealing (AMOSA) algorithm is designed to find Pareto-optimal solutions. Matrix-based solution representation, a heuristic procedure generating an initial and feasible solution and efficient mutation operators are the advantages of the designed AMOSA. To demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, the performance of AMOSA is compared with an exact algorithm (i.e., [-constraint method) solved by the GAMS software and a well-known evolutionary algorithm, namely NSGAII for some randomly generated problems based on some comparison metrics. The obtained results show that the designed AMOSA can obtain satisfactory solutions for the multi-objective model

Fuzzy Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for a Supplier Clustering Problem

This paper presents a fuzzy decision-making approach to deal with a clustering supplier problem in a supply chain system. During recent years, determining suitable suppliers in the supply chain has become a key strategic consideration. However, the nature of these decisions is usually complex and unstructured. In general, many quantitative and qualitative factors, such as quality, price, and flexibility and delivery performance, must be considered to determine suitable suppliers. The aim of this study is to present a new approach using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for clustering suppliers under fuzzy environments and classifying smaller groups with similar characteristics. Our numerical analysis indicates that the proposed PSO improves the performance of the fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm

Two Efficient Meta-Heuristic Algorithms for the Robust Inventory Routing Problem with Backhaul

The inventory routing problem (IRP) involves the integration and coordination of two components of the logistics value chain: inventory management and vehicle routing. Therefore, consideration of this issue can be effective in decision making of the organization and will lead to lower costs or other goals. Our objective in this article is to examine a new inventory-routing model and solve it with meta-heuristic methods. For more flexibility of the model, and approaching the real world, the model of this article is considered multi-period and multi-product. Also, two objective functions, including minimizing system costs and transportation risk, are included in this model. Given that the main parameter of the model, that is, demand, is uncertain, we have used a robust optimization approach to solve it, and since this model is in the classification of NP-Hard problems, we have used two meta-heuristic algorithms consisting of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and a multi-objective imperialist competitive algorithm (MOICA). By examining the model in two deterministic and robust conditions, according to two criteria, the mean values of the objective function and its standard deviation, it has been determined that in almost all cases, the robust optimization model produces better solutions. Also, between the two meta-heuristics method, the NSGA-II algorithm has shown better quality according to the mentioned criteria. Obviously, taking into account the different features of a model increases its efficiency. But this, obviously, makes the model even more complex. However, this complexity of models can work like a real system. Our attention in this article has been to this subject. To analyze such models, exact methods do not have the required performance and paying attention to heuristic and meta-heuristic methods is very effective. In this paper, a robust optimization and meta-heurictic approaches focus on these goals

Developing a hybrid data mining approach based on multi-objective particle swarm optimization for solving a traveling salesman problem

A traveling salesman problem (TSP) is an NP-hard optimization problem. So it is necessary to use intelligent and heuristic methods to solve such a hard problem in a less computational time. This paper proposes a novel hybrid approach, which is a data mining (DM) based on multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO), called intelligent MOPSO (IMOPSO). The first step of the proposed IMOPSO is to find efficient solutions by applying the MOPSO approach. Then, the GRI (Generalized Rule Induction) algorithm, which is a powerful association rule mining, is used for extracting rules from efficient solutions of the MOPSO approach. Afterwards, the extracted rules are applied to improve solutions of the MOPSO for large-sized problems. Our proposed approach (IMOPSP) conforms to a standard data mining framework is called CRISP-DM and is performed on five standard problems with bi-objectives. The associated results of this approach are compared with the results obtained by the MOPSO approach. The results show the superiority of the proposed IMOPSO to obtain more and better solutions in comparison to the MOPSO approach

A new approach for cell formation and scheduling with assembly operations and product structure

In this paper, a new formulation model for cellular manufacturing system (CMS) design problem is proposed. The proposed model of this paper considers assembly operations and product structure so that it includes the scheduling problem with the formation of manufacturing cells, simultaneously. Since the proposed model is nonlinear, a linearization method is applied to gain optimal solution when the model is solved using direct implementation of mixed integer programming. A new genetic algorithm (GA) is also proposed to solve the resulted model for large-scale problems. We examine the performance of the proposed method using the direct implementation and the proposed GA method. The results indicate that the proposed GA approach could provide efficient assembly and product structure for real-world size problems

A Stochastic Optimization Approach to a Location-Allocation Problem of Organ Transplant Centers

Decision-making concerning thelocation of critical resource on the geographical network is important in many industries.In the healthcare system,these decisions include location of emergency and preventive care. The decisions of location play a crucial role due to determining the travel time between supply and de//////mand points and response time in emergencies.Organs are considered as highly perishable products,whosevarietyof each product has a specific perish time. Despite the importance of this field,only a small proportion of healthcare sector is dedicated to this field. Matching and finding the best recipient for a donated organ is one of the major problems in this field, which is also crucial for the overall organ transplantation process.Balancing the demand and supply in a transplant organ supply chain in order to decrease the waiting list needs certain scheduling and management.The main contribution of this paper consists of considering recipient regionsas another component of the supply chain;in addition,importance of transportation time and waiting lists hasled us to consider a bi-objective model. In addition, uncertainty of input data has led us to consider a stochastic approach