An improved ant colony optimisation algorithm for three-tier supply chain scheduling based on networked manufacturing

摘要

This paper presents a study on supply chain scheduling from the perspective of networked manufacturing (NM). According to feature analysis of supply chain scheduling based on NM, we comprehensively consider the combined benefits of cost, time, and satisfaction level for customised services. In order to derive a scheduling strategy among supply chain members based on NM, we formulate a three-tier supply chain scheduling model composed of manufacturer, collaborative design enterprise and customer. Three objective functions time function, cost function and delay punishment function - are employed for model development. We also take into account multi-objective optimisation under the constraint of product capacity. By using an improved ant colony optimisation algorithm, we add different pheromone concentrations to selected nodes that are obtained from feasible solutions and we confine pheromone concentrations ι within the minimum value ι_(min) and the maximum value ι_(min) , thus obtaining optimal results. The results obtained by applying the proposed algorithm to a real-life example show that the presented scheduling optimisation algorithm has better convergence, efficiency, and stability than conventional ant colony optimisation. In addition, by comparing with other methods, the output results indicate that the proposed algorithm also has better solutions.