Clonal Selection Algorithm Approach for Multi-objective Optimization of Production-distribution System

This paper addresses a multi-objective production distribution problem to minimize both total weighted tardiness and total distribution cost. It is an NP hard problem with two objectives. The first objective is to sequence the orders on a production line such that it will decrease the tardiness of orders and the second objective is to ship those orders by considering routing and heterogeneous fleet of vehicles, if possible and thereby decrease the distribution cost. To solve the above problem, this work proposes a Clonal selection algorithm. This algorithm uses several strategies for generating the initial population and selecting the individuals for reproduction. Different mutation operators are also utilized for reproducing new individuals. The same algorithm is extended for considering routing between customers and heterogeneous fleet of vehicles. Finally, a Pareto optimal analysis is done to have a diverse set of solutions which are suitable for the environment prevailing at customers end.