Optimal Design of Manufacturing Services Network

Abstract

In the context of global manufacturing and service outsourcing, production-related services are organized as manufacturing services network. Service partner selection and production distribution planning are two key difficulties that arise in the optimal design of this network. This paper seeks to develop an effective methodology, which includes a mathematical model and an efficient genetic algorithm to solve problems. The mathematical model describes the characteristics of manufacturing services network. An efficient genetic search algorithm is developed to find out the optimal solution with minimum operating cost. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by solving a set of randomly generated problems.