Metaheuristics: A Comprehensive Guide to the Design and Implementation of Effective Optimisation Strategies

Companies and organisations deal with many problems that may seem difficult to solve at first In which order should customers be visited for delivery so that the total distance travelled by a delivery fleet is minimsed? How can a portfolio of shares be improved, taking into account limited financial resources? Where should warehouses be located? Which streets should be covered by which mailman? And in which order? For most of these problems - finding the best (or optimal) solution can be real problems are simply too complex or large to solve using the traditional methods based on mathematical programming. However, a new collection of methods have been developed that can be used to find "good enough" solutions in a reasonable amount of time. These new methods are metaheuristics. A Comprehensive Guide to the Design and Implementation of Effective Optimisation Strategies introduces and explains the most important metaheuristic methods, including tabu search, simulated annealing and genetic algorithms and discusses each of their advantages and disadvantages. The book includes program codes that show how each method is designed, implemented, evaluated and improved. A Comprehensive Guide to the Design and Implementation of Effective Optimisation Strategies is an ideal introduction to the subject for students, whilst the inclusion of advanced topics enables the book to act as a reference for researchers and a practical guide for engineers and managers who wish to apply metaheuristic methods to real problems in engineering and business.