A genetic approach to the pickup/delivery station location problem in segmented flow based material handling systems

This study develops an efficient heuristic for the pickup/delivery station location problem in material handling systems that have segmented Row topology (SFT). The suggested solution approach uses a genetic algorithm to replace the heuristic procedure previously used in the design algorithm of SFT material handling systems comprising two {0-1} integer programming models and a branch-and-bound search algorithm. Genetic algorithms are a class of heuristic search and optimization techniques that imitate the natural selection and evolutionary process. First, the encoding of the solutions into binary strings is presented, as well as the genetic operators used by the algorithm. The efficiency and robustness of the problem is demonstrated in several examples, Finally, the formulation of the problem is extended to consider internal department flaws as part of the flowpath design.