In most real world application and problems, a homogeneous product is carried from an origin to a destination by using different transportation modes (e.g., road, air, rail and water). This paper investigates a fixed charge transportation problem (FCTP), in which there are different routes with different capacities between suppliers and customers. To solve such a NP-hard problem, four meta-heur...

A lot of heuristic approaches have been explored in the last two decades in order to tackle large size optimization problems. These areas include parallel meta-heuristics, hybrid meta-heuristic, and cooperative search algorithms. Different taxonomies have been proposed in the literature for parallel and hybrid meta-heuristics. In these taxonomies, one can realize that cooperative search algorit...

In this chapter, we review a few important concepts from Grid computing related to scheduling problems and their resolution using heuristic and meta-heuristic approaches. Scheduling problems are at the heart of any Grid-like computational system. Different types of scheduling based on different criteria, such as static vs. dynamic environment, multi-objectivity, adaptivity, etc., are identified...

We describe a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm for combinatorial optimization problems with a specific reference to the travelling salesman problem (TSP). The method is a combination of a genetic algorithm (GA) and greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP). A new adaptive fuzzy a greedy search operator is developed for this hybrid method. Computational experiments using a wide range of...

In this research, an integrated inventory problem is formulated for a single-vendor multiple-retailer supply chain that works according to the vendor managed inventory policy. The model is derived based on the economic order quantity in which shortages with penalty costs at the retailers` level is permitted. As predicting customer demand is the most important problem in inventory systems and th...

Due to the immensity of phylogenetic tree space for large data sets, researches must rely on heuristic searches to infer reasonable phylogenies. By designing meta-searches which appropriately combine a variety of heuristics and parameter settings, researchers can significantly improve the performance of heuristic searches. Advanced language constructs in the open-source PSODA project—including ...

Recently, a number of algorithms inspired by the foraging behavior of ant colonies have been applied to the solution of difficult discrete optimization problems. In this paper we put these algorithms in a common framework by defining the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) meta-heuristic. A couple of paradigmatic examples of applications of these novel meta-heuristic are given, as well as a brief ove...

This paper considers a non-identical parallel machine scheduling problem with sequence and machine dependent setup times. The objective of this problem is to determine the allocation of jobs and the scheduling of each machine to minimize makespan. A mathematical model for optimal solution is derived. An in-depth analysis of the model shows that it is very complicated and difficult to obtain opt...

Local search, in either best or first admissible form, generally suffers from poor solution qualities as search cannot be continued beyond locally optimal points. Even multiple start local search strategies can suffer this problem. Meta-heuristic search algorithms, such as simulated annealing and tabu search, implement often computationally expensive optimisation strategies in which local searc...

Nature Inspired Meta-Heuristic algorithms are proved to be beneficial for solving real world combinatorial problems such as minimum spanning tree, knapsack problem, process planning problems, load balancing and many more. In this research work, existing meta-heuristic approaches are discussed. Due to astonishing feature of echolocation, bat algorithm has drawn major attention in recent years an...