ALGORITMOS COEVOLUTIVOS PARA EL DISEÑO DE DISTRIBUCIÓN EN PLANTA

Abstract

Coevolutionary Algorithms are a kind of evolutionary techniques used to solve complex problems, which can be split up. The unequal area facility layout problem (UA-FLP) is complex because it has many possible solutions whose number grows exponentially with the number of departments or zones to distribute. One widely studied layout structure for this problem is the flexible bay structure. In this structure there are two clear parts: the bay structure (how many and with how many departments in each of them) and the department order (which ones go in each bay and how are they ordered in the bay). We propose to approach this automatic design problem using these two parts to divide the problem and apply a coevolutionary cooperative algorithm to search one of the best solutions in an effective way. The tests show that the results are better with the coevolutionary algorithm than with the simple evolutionary version.