A cellular manufacturing system (CMS) belongs to a family of modern production methods, which many industrial sectors have used beneficially in recent years. In fact, this system is an application of group technology (GT) determining cell formation (i.e. clustering part families and machine grouping) and layout design (i.e., inter-cell and intra-cell layouts). In the last two decades, a number ...

We review three leading stochastic optimization methods—simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, and tabu search. In each case we analyze the method, give the exact algorithm, detail advantages and disadvantages, and summarize the literature on optimal values of the inputs. As a motivating example we describe the solution—using Bayesian decision theory, via maximization of expected utility—of a...

We use marked point processes to detect an unknown number of trees from high resolution aerial images. This is in fact an energy minimization problem, where the energy contains a prior term which takes into account the geometrical properties of the objects, and a data term to match these objects to the image. This stochastic process is simulated via a Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo pr...

Real-world manufacturing systems are operating subject to a substantial level of resource constraints. One characteristic model that considers the combination of human and machine resource constraints is called dual resource constrained (DRC). In this context a number of machines nmach is managed by a selection of operators nop, with typically nop ≤ nmach.. A real life case study for an Italian...

This paper investigates the network location problem for single-server facilities that are subject to congestion. In each network edge, customers are uniformly distributed along the edge and their requests for service are assumed to be generated according to a Poisson process. A number of facilities are to be selected from a number of candidate sites and a single server is located at each facil...

Optimisation of facility layout design problem with safety and environmental factors by stochastic DEA and simulation approach A. Azadeh, T. Nazari & H. Charkhand a School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Center of Excellence for Intelligent Based Experimental Mechanics, University College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran b HSE Department, National Petrochemical Compa...