A population-based approach to sequential ordering problems

[摘要] This project was initiated to develop a new and novel approach to address complex sequencingproblems, in particular, an alternative method was developed to find solutions to the sequentialordering problem.The sequential ordering problem is concerned with the arrangement of a number of elements in asequence that respects a number of precedence constraints and results in the lowest overall cost.A precedence constraint requires that some element will occur before another in the solutionsequence, and the cost of a solution is determined by summing the independent individual coststhat are incurred when progressing from one specific element in the solution sequence toanother.Instances of this problem are regularly found in the practice of industrial engineering in problemssuch as the routing of a delivery vehicle, the scheduling of jobs on a machine and the preparationof project plans with limited resources.The sequential ordering problem is known to be complex in the sense that as the size of probleminstances increases, the best-known time required to find a guaranteed optimal solution increasesexponentially.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University