The relentless pursuit of increased product quality via continuous improvement is an important long-term strategy for achieving competitive advantage. However, manufacturers must still achieve high product quality in the short run. Hence, short-run quality improvement strategies are necessary,...

The floorplanning (or facility layout) problem consists in finding the optimal positions for a given set of modules of fixed area (but perhaps varying height and width) within a facility such that the distances between pairs of modules that have a positive connection cost are minimized. This is...

Proteins are important molecules that are widely studied in biology. Since their three-dimensional conformations can give clues about their function, an optimal methodology for the identification of such conformations has been researched for many years. Experiments of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance...

The floorplanning (or facility layout) problem consists in finding the optimal positions for a given set of modules of fixed area (but perhaps varying height and width) within a facility such that the distances between pairs of modules that have a positive connection cost are minimized. This is...

We consider a two-dimensional cutting stock problem where stock of different sizes is available, and a set of rectangular items has to be obtained through two-staged guillotine cuts. We propose a heuristic algorithm, based on column generation, which requires as its subproblem the solution of a...

Although greedy algorithms are important, nowadays it is well assumed that the solutions they obtain can be used as a starting point for more sophisticated methods. This paper describes an evolutionary approach which is based on genetic algorithms (GA). A constructive heuristic, so-called fuzzy...

This article describes how the 0/1 Multiple Knapsack Problem (MKP), a generalization of popular 0/1 Knapsack Problem, is NP-hard and harder than simple Knapsack Problem. Solution of MKP involves two levels of choice – one for selecting an item to be placed and the other for selecting the...

The traveling thief problem (TTP) is a benchmark problem that consists of two well-known problems, the traveling salesman problem (TSP) and the knapsack problem (KP). It was defined to imitate complex real-world applications that comprise different interdependent sub-problems. Various approaches...

Over the recent years, Fireworks Algorithm has recorded an increasing success on solving continuous optimization problems, due to its efficiency, simplicity and more importantly its rapid convergence to good optimums. Thus, the Fireworks Algorithm performance is now widely comparable with the...

This paper presents mathematics of the so-called fuzzy greedy evaluation concept which can be integrated into approaches for hard combinatorial optimization problems. The proposed method evaluates objects in a way that combines fuzzy reasoning with a greedy mechanism, thereby exploiting a fuzzy...