Abstract. Companies that produce capital goods need to schedule the production of products that h... more Abstract. Companies that produce capital goods need to schedule the production of products that have complex product structures with components that require many operations on different machines. A feasible schedule must satisfy operation and assembly precedence constraints. It is also important to avoid deadlock situations. In this paper a Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been developed that includes a new repair process that rectifies infeasi-ble schedules that are produced during the evolution process. The algorithm was designed to minimise the com-bination of earliness and tardiness penalties and took into account finite capacity constraints. Three different sized problems were obtained from a collaborating capital goods company. A design of experimental approach was used to systematically identify that the best genetic operators and GA parameters for each size of problem.
In this project, a collaboration mechanism in a centralized model will be designed and applied fo... more In this project, a collaboration mechanism in a centralized model will be designed and applied for empty container sharing between two firms. The developed model is based on two firms on two terminals. Both the firms accept the cargoes from consignee so both of them have the demands for the empty container. The two operators charge their customers separately once they accept the cargoes from consignee, which can affect the demand of empty container. Additionally, empty containers can be exchanged between two firms when the containers the operator has is insufficient whereas the other has surplus containers.
Abstract The capital goods industry produces physical assets used for current and future producti... more Abstract The capital goods industry produces physical assets used for current and future production. Capital goods are highly customised. Production scheduling aims to synchronise material supply, component manufacturing, sub-assembly and final assembly processes to minimise the total costs of earliness and tardiness, whilst satisfying finite capacity, machining and assembly precedence constraints. This paper presents the first application of Grey Wolf Optimisation (GWO) together with modified and hybridised versions for solving the capital goods scheduling problem. A novel GWO-based production scheduling tool was developed and validated using four realistic case studies obtained from a collaborating company. The first experiment identified appropriate parameter settings for the GWO. The performance of the GWO was then evaluated and compared with a modified GWO and a hybridised GWO. The computational results obtained from the proposed methods were statistical analysed. The outperformed other metaheuristics.
IEE 2nd Annual Symposium on Engineering Education, 2002
ABSTRACT This paper describes the development, operation and evaluation of a new format of group ... more ABSTRACT This paper describes the development, operation and evaluation of a new format of group design project that has been adopted by the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Newcastle. In the academic year 2000/2001, 36 students were assigned to 9 projects. There were projects relating to machine design, machine development, design for manufacture, process design and the design, development and implementation of manufacturing software. This range of projects reflects the diversity of engineering design. Each project was multi-disciplinary with the each team member engaging in engineering and management tasks. Students were allocated to groups associated with their degree programme. The Degree Programme Directors fulfilled two roles: supervisor and "customer". It was the students' responsibility to elicit and agree the product specification that subsequently formed the basis of the assessment. The students were responsible for conducting a series of business meetings with the customer. These were supplemented by regular supervision meetings. The projects were supported by a series of lectures that covered design methodology, the specification process, working in teams, project planning and management, research and library skills, report writing and presentational skills. A framework for running team group projects that has proved to be effective, stimulating, fair and achievable is presented. Methods for assessing the project team, the individual students and the products designed are discussed. The effectiveness of this mode of teaching is then evaluated.
Abstract. Companies that produce capital goods need to schedule the production of products that h... more Abstract. Companies that produce capital goods need to schedule the production of products that have complex product structures with components that require many operations on different machines. A feasible schedule must satisfy operation and assembly precedence constraints. It is also important to avoid deadlock situations. In this paper a Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been developed that includes a new repair process that rectifies infeasi-ble schedules that are produced during the evolution process. The algorithm was designed to minimise the com-bination of earliness and tardiness penalties and took into account finite capacity constraints. Three different sized problems were obtained from a collaborating capital goods company. A design of experimental approach was used to systematically identify that the best genetic operators and GA parameters for each size of problem.
In this project, a collaboration mechanism in a centralized model will be designed and applied fo... more In this project, a collaboration mechanism in a centralized model will be designed and applied for empty container sharing between two firms. The developed model is based on two firms on two terminals. Both the firms accept the cargoes from consignee so both of them have the demands for the empty container. The two operators charge their customers separately once they accept the cargoes from consignee, which can affect the demand of empty container. Additionally, empty containers can be exchanged between two firms when the containers the operator has is insufficient whereas the other has surplus containers.
Abstract The capital goods industry produces physical assets used for current and future producti... more Abstract The capital goods industry produces physical assets used for current and future production. Capital goods are highly customised. Production scheduling aims to synchronise material supply, component manufacturing, sub-assembly and final assembly processes to minimise the total costs of earliness and tardiness, whilst satisfying finite capacity, machining and assembly precedence constraints. This paper presents the first application of Grey Wolf Optimisation (GWO) together with modified and hybridised versions for solving the capital goods scheduling problem. A novel GWO-based production scheduling tool was developed and validated using four realistic case studies obtained from a collaborating company. The first experiment identified appropriate parameter settings for the GWO. The performance of the GWO was then evaluated and compared with a modified GWO and a hybridised GWO. The computational results obtained from the proposed methods were statistical analysed. The outperformed other metaheuristics.
IEE 2nd Annual Symposium on Engineering Education, 2002
ABSTRACT This paper describes the development, operation and evaluation of a new format of group ... more ABSTRACT This paper describes the development, operation and evaluation of a new format of group design project that has been adopted by the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Newcastle. In the academic year 2000/2001, 36 students were assigned to 9 projects. There were projects relating to machine design, machine development, design for manufacture, process design and the design, development and implementation of manufacturing software. This range of projects reflects the diversity of engineering design. Each project was multi-disciplinary with the each team member engaging in engineering and management tasks. Students were allocated to groups associated with their degree programme. The Degree Programme Directors fulfilled two roles: supervisor and "customer". It was the students' responsibility to elicit and agree the product specification that subsequently formed the basis of the assessment. The students were responsible for conducting a series of business meetings with the customer. These were supplemented by regular supervision meetings. The projects were supported by a series of lectures that covered design methodology, the specification process, working in teams, project planning and management, research and library skills, report writing and presentational skills. A framework for running team group projects that has proved to be effective, stimulating, fair and achievable is presented. Methods for assessing the project team, the individual students and the products designed are discussed. The effectiveness of this mode of teaching is then evaluated.
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