Heuristic stability: A permutation disarray measure

Heuristic performance has been mainly measured by effectiveness (near optimality) and efficiency (computational complexity). More recently researchers have begun the difficult task of evaluating heuristic stability, or sensitivity, to perturbations in the problem specifications. Various stability measures have been proposed. Here we consider how Spearman's footrule, a measure of permutation disarray, may shed some further light on this, not as yet well understood, problem.