A comprehensive investigation into the performance of genetic algorithm for effective shipyard topological layout

Abstract

Shipyards have large departments or facilities. It is essential to make an effective topological layout plan since the initial investment cost of these departments is high. Topological layout is an optimization problem and Genetic Algorithm (GA) is generally used in the literature. The selection of effective genetic algorithm approaches and operators are very important to improve the performance of the optimization. This study investigates an effective solution to the shipyard topological layout using a Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) model with classic and elitist GA approaches. Besides, genetic operators that have significant effects on exploitation and exploration capabilities are analyzed. Therefore, 126 experiments were run with 13 different operators. The results obtained from the classic and elitist GA approach were evaluated individually and compared with each other. It was observed that the elitist GA approach has a superior performance compared to the classic GA approach. This study is the most comprehensive and practical study on the performance of the GA for topological layout of the shipyard in the literature.

Shipyard facility layout optimization through the implementation of a sequential structure of algorithms

“…In 1st stage should be noted that keeping department 3 in position 5 of the topological Grid, the result obtained is a cost equal to 10,944, the same cost found in Ref. [ 16 ] work. In this case, Department 3 represents the beginning of the shipyard's production flow and the entrance to the land is on the left side and in the upper part of the Grid, which is incongruent with regard to the positioning of the Department and for this reason, the result of the distribution of departments on the Grid corresponding to the cost of 10,944 was discarded in this work.…”

“…Through well-defined and controlled closeness conditions by shipyard layout design specifications, material handling costs are potentially reduced and a continuous production flow is ensured [ 2 ]. Appropriate sizing of the capacity and the speed of the equipment for transferring the materials throughout the facility, which have different weights and sizes, and go through different departments, also has a strong impact on the performance of this type of system [ [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , 12 , 16 ].…”

“…[ 2 , 3 , 12 , 14 , 16 , [21] , [22] , [23] ] highlight that between the main algorithms commonly applied to solve the FLP the algorithms Simulated Annealing (SA) and GA have been widely addressed in literature. In this study, the literature review lists the works according to the subsections: 2.1.…”

“…proposed a two-stage approach for shipyard facility layout selection using Fuzzy Similarity Index (FSI) to assess alternative shipyard layouts obtained from the experience of shipbuilding practitioners with respect to the ideal layout, and the Fuzzy Goal Programming Model (FGPM) to select the alternative layout. Finally [ 16 ], studies the performance of genetic algorithms in order to solve the topology optimization problem of facilities. However there are few studies in the literature evaluating these meta-heuristics while addressing a shipyard facility layout problem.…”