A hybrid genetic algorithm for the Three-Index Assignment Problem

The Three-Index Assignment Problem (AP3) is well-known problem which has been shown to be NP-hard. This problem has been studied extensively, and many exact and heuristic methods have been proposed to solve it. Inspired by the classical assignment problem, we propose a new local search heuristic which solves the problem by simplifying it to the classical assignment problem. We further hybridize our heuristic with the genetic algorithm (GA). Extensive experimental results indicate that our hybrid method is superior to all previous heuristic methods including those proposed by Balas and Saltzman [Operations Research 39 (1991) 150–161], Crama and Spieksma [European Journal of Operational Research 60 (1992) 273–279], Burkard et al. [Discrete Applied Mathematics 65 (1996) 123–169], and Aiex et al. [GRASP with path relinking for the three-index assignment problem, Technical report, INFORMS Journal on Computing, in press. Available from: ]. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.