UNA NUEVA PROPUESTA HÍBRIDA EVOLUTIVA PARA CAPTURAR EL CONOCIMIENTO EXPERTO EN EL PROBLEMA DE DISTRIBUCIÓN EN PLANTA DE ÁREAS DESIGUALES

Abstract

This article presents a new hybrid evolutionary system for considering human expert knowledge into the Unequal Area Facility Layout Problem (UA-FLP). The novel hybrid system proposed consists of an Interactive Genetic Algorithm combined with two different niching methods with the aim of allowing interaction between the hybrid algorithm and the human expert designer, normally called Decision Maker (DM) in the field of UA-FLP. The participation of the DM knowledge into the approach guides the complex search process, adjusting it to the DM’s preferences. The whole population associated to facility layout designs is evaluated by the DM, who only gives a subjective evaluation to a set of representative individuals of the population in each iteration (in order to avoid fatiguing him/her). The inclusion of niching techniques into the approach allow the preservation of the population diversity avoiding that similar solutions will be presented to the DM in the same algorithm iteration. The novel proposed approach was tested using a interesting case study of facility layout designs. The results of the experiments, which successfully validate the novel proposed approach, are presented, compared and discussed in this study.