Concurrent Optimization of Product Module Selection and Assembly Line Configuration: A Multi-Objective Approach

2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhonghui Xu ◽  
Ming Liang

Both modular product design and reconfigurable manufacturing have a great potential to enhance responsiveness to market changes and to reduce production cost. However, the two issues have thus far mostly been investigated separately, thereby causing possible mismatch between the modular product structure and the manufacturing or assembly system. Therefore, the potential benefits of product modularity may not be materialized due to such mismatch. For this reason, this paper presents a concurrent approach to the product module selection and assembly line design problems to provide a set of harmonic solutions to the two problems and hence avoid the mismatch between design and manufacturing. The integrated nature of the problem leads to several noncommensurable and often conflicting objectives. The modified Chebyshev goal programming approach is applied to solve the multi-objective problem. A genetic algorithm is further developed to provide quick and near-optimum solutions. The proposed approach and the solution procedure have been applied to an ABS motor problem. The performance of the genetic algorithm has also been examined.

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 543
Author(s):  
Alejandra Ríos ◽  
Eusebio E. Hernández ◽  
S. Ivvan Valdez

This paper introduces a two-stage method based on bio-inspired algorithms for the design optimization of a class of general Stewart platforms. The first stage performs a mono-objective optimization in order to reach, with sufficient dexterity, a regular target workspace while minimizing the elements’ lengths. For this optimization problem, we compare three bio-inspired algorithms: the Genetic Algorithm (GA), the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and the Boltzman Univariate Marginal Distribution Algorithm (BUMDA). The second stage looks for the most suitable gains of a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control via the minimization of two conflicting objectives: one based on energy consumption and the tracking error of a target trajectory. To this effect, we compare two multi-objective algorithms: the Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm based on Decomposition (MOEA/D) and Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-III (NSGA-III). The main contributions lie in the optimization model, the proposal of a two-stage optimization method, and the findings of the performance of different bio-inspired algorithms for each stage. Furthermore, we show optimized designs delivered by the proposed method and provide directions for the best-performing algorithms through performance metrics and statistical hypothesis tests.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya Ge ◽  
Feng Shan ◽  
Zhichun Liu ◽  
Wei Liu

This paper proposes a general method combining evolutionary algorithm and decision-making technique to optimize the structure of a minichannel heat sink (MCHS). Two conflicting objectives, the thermal resistance θ and the pumping power P, are simultaneously considered to assess the performance of the MCHS. In order to achieve the ultimate optimal design, multi-objective genetic algorithm is employed to obtain the nondominated solutions (Pareto solutions), while technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) is employed to determine which is the best compromise solution. Meanwhile, both the material cost and volumetric flow rate are fixed where this nonlinear problem is solved by applying the penalty function. The results show that θ of Pareto solutions varies from 0.03707 K W−1 to 0.10742 K W−1, while P varies from 0.00307 W to 0.05388 W, respectively. After the TOPSIS selection, it is found that P is significantly reduced without increasing too much θ. As a result, θ and P of the optimal MCHS determined by TOPSIS are 35.82% and 52.55% lower than initial one, respectively.


2006 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 984-995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hegui Ye ◽  
Ming Liang

Modular product design can facilitate the diversification of product variety at a low cost. Reconfigurable manufacturing, if planned properly, is able to deliver high productivity and quick responsiveness to market changes. Together, the two could provide an unprecedented competitive edge to a manufacturing company. The production of a family of modular products in a reconfigurable manufacturing system often requires reorganizing the manufacturing system in such a way that each configuration corresponds to one product variant in the same family. The successful implementation of this strategy lies in proper scheduling of the modular product operations and optimal selection of a configuration for producing each product variant. These two issues are closely related and have a strong impact on each other. Nevertheless, they have often been treated separately, rendering inefficient, infeasible, and conflicting decisions. As such, an integrated model is developed to address the two problems simultaneously. The objective is to minimize the sum of the manufacturing cost components that are affected by the two planning decisions. These include reconfiguration cost, machine idle cost, material handling cost, and work-in-process cost incurred in producing a batch of product variants. Due to the combinatorial nature of the problem, a genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to provide quick and near-optimal solutions. A case study is conducted using a steering column to illustrate the application of the integrated approach. Our computational experience shows that the proposed GA substantially outperforms a popular optimization software package, LINGO, in terms of both solution quality and computing efficiency.


Author(s):  
Javad Ansarifar ◽  
Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam ◽  
Faezeh Akhavizadegan ◽  
Saman Hassanzadeh Amin

This article formulates the operating rooms considering several constraints of the real world, such as decision-making styles, multiple stages for surgeries, time windows for resources, and specialty and complexity of surgery. Based on planning, surgeries are assigned to the working days. Then, the scheduling part determines the sequence of surgeries per day. Moreover, an integrated fuzzy possibilistic–stochastic mathematical programming approach is applied to consider some sources of uncertainty, simultaneously. Net revenues of operating rooms are maximized through the first objective function. Minimizing a decision-making style inconsistency among human resources and maximizing utilization of operating rooms are considered as the second and third objectives, respectively. Two popular multi-objective meta-heuristic algorithms including Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm and Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization are utilized for solving the developed model. Moreover, different comparison metrics are applied to compare the two proposed meta-heuristics. Several test problems based on the data obtained from a public hospital located in Iran are used to display the performance of the model. According to the results, Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II outperforms the Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm in most of the utilized metrics. Moreover, the results indicate that our proposed model is more effective and efficient to schedule and plan surgeries and assign resources than manual scheduling.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 863-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samad Ayazi ◽  
Abdol Naser Hajizadeh ◽  
Mostafa Emrani Nooshabadi ◽  
Hamid reza Jalaie ◽  
Yaghoob Mohammad moradi

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-guang Zhong

Hull assembly line balancing has significant impact on performance of shipbuilding system and is usually a multi-objective optimization problem. In this article, the primary objectives of the hull assembly line balancing are to minimize the number of workstations, to minimize the static load balancing index, to minimize the dynamic load balancing index between workstations, and to minimize the multi-station-associated complexity. Because this problem comes under combinatorial optimization category and is non-deterministic polynomial-time hard, an improved genetic algorithm simulated annealing is presented. In genetic algorithm simulated annealing, the task sequence numbers are used as chromosomes, and selection, crossover, and mutation operators only deal with the elements of task set instead of the ones of the problem space. In order to prevent the algorithm appearing early convergence or getting local optimal result, the simulated annealing algorithm is used to deal with the individuals. Meanwhile, the algorithm is embedded with the hierarchical scheduling tactics in order to solve the selection problem on optimal solution in the Pareto-optimal set. A number of benchmark problems are solved to prove the superior efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Finally, a case study of the optimization of a hull assembly line was given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the method.


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