Glass container production scheduling through hybrid multi-population based evolutionary algorithm

Author(s)

Motta Toledo, Claudio Fabiano ^[1] ; Arantes, Marcio da Silva ^[1] ; Ribeiro de Oliveira, Renato Resende ^[2] ; Almada-Lobo, Bernardo ^[3]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Ciencia Matemat & Comp, BR-13566590 Sao Carlos, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Fed Lavras, Dept Ciencia Comp, BR-37200000 Lavras, MG - Brazil

^[3] Univ Porto, Fac Engn, INESC TEC, P-4200465 Oporto - Portugal

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: APPLIED SOFT COMPUTING; v. 13, n. 3, p. 1352-1364, MAR 2013.
• Web of Science Citations: 23

Abstract

Driven by a real-world application in the capital-intensive glass container industry, this paper provides the design of a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm to tackle the short-term production planning and scheduling problem. The challenge consists of sizing and scheduling the lots in the most cost-effective manner on a set of parallel molding machines that are fed by a furnace that melts the glass. The solution procedure combines a multi-population hierarchically structured genetic algorithm (GA) with a simulated annealing (SA), and a tailor-made heuristic named cavity heuristic (CH). The SA is applied to intensify the search for solutions in the neighborhood of the best individuals found by the GA, while the CH determines quickly values for a relevant decision variable of the problem: the processing speed of each machine. The results indicate the superior performance of the proposed approach against a state-of-the-art commercial solver, and compared to a non-hybridized multi-population GA. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/10133-0 - Cutting, packing, lot-sizing and scheduling problems and their integration in industrial and logistics settings
• Grantee: Reinaldo Morabito Neto
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 11/15581-3 - Environment for development of methods applied to optimization problems
• Grantee: Márcio da Silva Arantes
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• FAPESP's process: 11/15534-5 - Hybrid heuristics and metaheuristics applied to the multi-level capacitated lot sizing problem
• Grantee: Claudio Fabiano Motta Toledo
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants