IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/upf/upfgen/288.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Adaptive approach heuristics for the generalized assignment problem

Author

Abstract

The Generalized Assignment Problem consists in assigning a set of tasks to a set of agents with minimum cost. Each agent has a limited amount of a single resource and each task must be assigned to one and only one agent, requiring a certain amount of the resource of the agent. We present new metaheuristics for the generalized assignment problem based on hybrid approaches. One metaheuristic is a MAX-MIN Ant System (MMAS), an improved version of the Ant System, which was recently proposed by Stutzle and Hoos to combinatorial optimization problems, and it can be seen has an adaptive sampling algorithm that takes in consideration the experience gathered in earlier iterations of the algorithm. Moreover, the latter heuristic is combined with local search and tabu search heuristics to improve the search. A greedy randomized adaptive search heuristic (GRASP) is also proposed. Several neighborhoods are studied, including one based on ejection chains that produces good moves without increasing the computational effort. We present computational results of the comparative performance, followed by concluding remarks and ideas on future research in generalized assignment related problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Helena Ramalhinho-Lourenço & Daniel Serra, 1998. "Adaptive approach heuristics for the generalized assignment problem," Economics Working Papers 288, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
  • Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:288
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econ-papers.upf.edu/papers/288.pdf
    File Function: Whole Paper
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David S. Johnson & Cecilia R. Aragon & Lyle A. McGeoch & Catherine Schevon, 1989. "Optimization by Simulated Annealing: An Experimental Evaluation; Part I, Graph Partitioning," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 37(6), pages 865-892, December.
    2. Laguna, Manuel & Kelly, James P. & Gonzalez-Velarde, JoseLuis & Glover, Fred, 1995. "Tabu search for the multilevel generalized assignment problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 176-189, April.
    3. ,, 1998. "Problems And Solutions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 151-159, February.
    4. ,, 1998. "Problems And Solutions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 687-698, October.
    5. Cattrysse, Dirk. G. & Salomon, Marc & Van Wassenhove, Luk N., 1994. "A set partitioning heuristic for the generalized assignment problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 167-174, January.
    6. ,, 1998. "Problems And Solutions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 381-386, June.
    7. ,, 1998. "Problems And Solutions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 525-537, August.
    8. ,, 1998. "Problems And Solutions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 285-292, April.
    9. Cattrysse, Dirk G. & Van Wassenhove, Luk N., 1992. "A survey of algorithms for the generalized assignment problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 260-272, August.
    10. Marshall L. Fisher & R. Jaikumar & Luk N. Van Wassenhove, 1986. "A Multiplier Adjustment Method for the Generalized Assignment Problem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(9), pages 1095-1103, September.
    11. Mohammad M. Amini & Michael Racer, 1994. "A Rigorous Computational Comparison of Alternative Solution Methods for the Generalized Assignment Problem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(7), pages 868-890, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francisco Silva & Daniel Serra, 2008. "Incorporating waiting time in competitive location models: Formulations and heuristics," Economics Working Papers 1091, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Helena Ramalhinho-Lourenço & Rafael Martí & Manuel Laguna, 2001. "Assigning proctors to exams with scatter search," Economics Working Papers 534, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Allen C. Goodman & Miron Stano, 2000. "Hmos and Health Externalities: A Local Public Good Perspective," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(3), pages 247-269, May.
    2. Bettina Campedelli & Andrea Guerrina & Giulia Romano & Chiara Leardini, 2014. "La performance della rete ospedaliera pubblica della regione Veneto. L?impatto delle variabili ambientali e operative sull?efficienza," MECOSAN, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(92), pages 119-142.
    3. Penn Loh & Zoë Ackerman & Joceline Fidalgo & Rebecca Tumposky, 2022. "Co-Education/Co-Research Partnership: A Critical Approach to Co-Learning between Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative and Tufts University," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, February.
    4. O'Brien, Raymond & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2003. "Testing the exogeneity assumption in panel data models with "non classical" disturbances," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0302, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    5. YongSeog Kim & W. Nick Street & Gary J. Russell & Filippo Menczer, 2005. "Customer Targeting: A Neural Network Approach Guided by Genetic Algorithms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(2), pages 264-276, February.
    6. Yanling Li & Zita Oravecz & Shuai Zhou & Yosef Bodovski & Ian J. Barnett & Guangqing Chi & Yuan Zhou & Naomi P. Friedman & Scott I. Vrieze & Sy-Miin Chow, 2022. "Bayesian Forecasting with a Regime-Switching Zero-Inflated Multilevel Poisson Regression Model: An Application to Adolescent Alcohol Use with Spatial Covariates," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 87(2), pages 376-402, June.
    7. Oscar J. Cacho & Robyn L. Hean & Russell M. Wise, 2003. "Carbon‐accounting methods and reforestation incentives," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 47(2), pages 153-179, June.
    8. Walter M. Cadette, 1999. "Financing Long-Term Care: Options for Policy," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_283, Levy Economics Institute.
    9. Eggli, Yves & Halfon, Patricia & Chikhi, Mehdi & Bandi, Till, 2006. "Ambulatory healthcare information system: A conceptual framework," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 26-38, August.
    10. M. A. Noor & E.A. Al-Said, 2002. "Finite-Difference Method for a System of Third-Order Boundary-Value Problems," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 627-637, March.
    11. Yong He & Zhiyi Tan, 2002. "Ordinal On-Line Scheduling for Maximizing the Minimum Machine Completion Time," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 199-206, June.
    12. Henderson, James E. & Dunn, Michael A., 2007. "Investigating the Potential of Fee-Based Recreation on Private Lands in the Lower Mississippi River Delta," 2007 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2007, Mobile, Alabama 34822, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    13. Eike Quilling & Birgit Babitsch & Kevin Dadaczynski & Stefanie Kruse & Maja Kuchler & Heike Köckler & Janna Leimann & Ulla Walter & Christina Plantz, 2020. "Municipal Health Promotion as Part of Urban Health: A Policy Framework for Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-10, August.
    14. Haeringer, Guillaume & Klijn, Flip, 2009. "Constrained school choice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(5), pages 1921-1947, September.
    15. Alireza Nili & Mary Tate & David Johnstone, 2019. "The process of solving problems with self-service technologies: a study from the user’s perspective," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 373-407, June.
    16. Chein-Shan Liu & Zhuojia Fu & Chung-Lun Kuo, 2017. "Directional Method of Fundamental Solutions for Three-dimensional Laplace Equation," Journal of Mathematics Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(6), pages 112-123, December.
    17. Ali Akgül & Esra Karatas Akgül & Dumitru Baleanu & Mustafa Inc, 2018. "New Numerical Method for Solving Tenth Order Boundary Value Problems," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-9, November.
    18. Li, Haitao & Womer, Norman K., 2015. "Solving stochastic resource-constrained project scheduling problems by closed-loop approximate dynamic programming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(1), pages 20-33.
    19. José Sánchez Maldonado & Salvador Gómez Sala, 2006. "The Reform of Indirect Taxation in Spain: VAT and Excise," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0607, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    20. Georgios Marinakos & Sophia Daskalaki, 2017. "Imbalanced customer classification for bank direct marketing," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 14-30, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Metaheuristics; generalized assignment; local search; GRASP; tabu search; ant systems;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:288. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.econ.upf.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.