Abstract
This paper considers the component assignment problem (CAP) of finding the optimal assignment of n available components to n positions in a system such that the system reliability is maximized. To solve the CAP, an important type of problems in reliability, we propose a Birnbaum-importance based genetic local search (BIGLS) algorithm in which a local search using the Birnbaum importance is embedded into the genetic algorithm. This paper presents comprehensive numerical tests to compare the performance of the BIGLS with a general genetic algorithm and a Birnbaum-importance based two-stage heuristic. The testing results show that the BIGLS is robust (with respect to its random operations) and effective, and outperforms two benchmark methods in terms of solution quality. It demonstrates the effectiveness of embedding the Birnbaum importance in the local search under the genetic evolutionary mechanism.
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Notes
A Lin/Con/k/n:F (G) system is an ordered sequence of n components arranged in a line such that the system fails (works) if and only if at least k consecutive components fail (work) (Kuo and Zuo 2002).
Cir/Con/k/n systems represent circular consecutive k-out-of-n systems, which are same as Lin/Con/k/n systems except all components are arranged in a circle rather than a line (Kuo and Zuo 2002).
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This work is supported in part by a National Science Foundation Project # CMMI-0825908.
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Yao, Q., Zhu, X. & Kuo, W. A Birnbaum-importance based genetic local search algorithm for component assignment problems. Ann Oper Res 212, 185–200 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-012-1223-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-012-1223-1