A Mathematical Model and an Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for In-Plant Milk-Run Design

Abstract

As a result of the product diversification, many types of components are used in the products’ bill-of-materials. Consequently, smaller quantities of many different types of components are needed to be distributed. All these factors complicated the part-feeding to the assembly lines. In this study, a mathematical model is developed for an in-plant milk-run material supply system that periodically distributes multiple parts by using multiple vehicles to the stations of the assembly lines. This model is called the Multi-Vehicle Milk-Run Model. As the proposed mathematical model is NP-hard, an Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm is developed to solve the large instances. The proposed ABC Algorithm is tested based on the optimum solutions (where available) and the best-known feasible solutions of different sized instances of a real washing machine assembly plant. Hence, the performance of the ABC Algorithm is validated.