Comparison of Max-min Approach and Nn Method for Reliability Optimization of Series-parallel System

Two heuristics, the max-min approach and the Nakagawa and Nakashima method, are considered for the redundancy allocation problem with series-parallel structure. The max-min approach can formulate the problem as an integer linear programming problem instead of an integer nonlinear problem. This paper presents a comparison between those methods from the standpoint of solution quality and computational complexity. The experimental results show that the max-min approach is superior to the Nakagawa and Nakashima method in terms of solution quality in small-scale problems, but analysis of computational complexity shows that the max-min approach is inferior to other greedy heuristics.