The single loop material flow system design is a combinatorial optimization problem, arising in material handling sys- tem design, which amounts to designing an unidirectional loop flow pattern as well as to locate pickup and delivery sta- tions. The objective is to minimize the time required to carry out all material flow movements between cells. In this paper, we develop valid inequalities for a previously proposed formulation. The valid inequalities are then embedded into a branch-and-cut framework which is shown to solve much larger instances to optimality than those reported in the litera- ture. A tailored tabu search heuristic is also illustrated and computationally assessed.
Improved formulation, branch and cut and tabu search heuristic for single loop material flow system design
GRIECO, Antonio Domenico;GHIANI, GIANPAOLO;CARICATO, Pierpaolo
2007-01-01
Abstract
The single loop material flow system design is a combinatorial optimization problem, arising in material handling sys- tem design, which amounts to designing an unidirectional loop flow pattern as well as to locate pickup and delivery sta- tions. The objective is to minimize the time required to carry out all material flow movements between cells. In this paper, we develop valid inequalities for a previously proposed formulation. The valid inequalities are then embedded into a branch-and-cut framework which is shown to solve much larger instances to optimality than those reported in the litera- ture. A tailored tabu search heuristic is also illustrated and computationally assessed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
