Title:
BUSINESS APPLICATIONS OF OPTIMISATION THEORY: ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION AND SELECTED APPLICATIONS IN MANUFACTURING

Authors:
Trung Minh Ngo

Abstract:
Ant Colony Optimization is a metaheuristic that was developed in the early 90s to solve optimization problems and finding for them good approximate solutions if not perfect ones, the developers of ant colony optimization algorithms took inspiration from the foraging behavior of ants in ant colonies, where although many ant species are close to blind, they have a surprisingly efficient technique in finding the shortest paths from their colony towards food sources and back. The first section of this paper introduces ant colony optimization origins and ideas, and the section after that discusses the main algorithms of ant colony optimization. The next chapter will include successful manufacturing applications for the algorithms. The last section will summarize the paper and discuss the findings. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the ant colony optimization function and highlight how it has applications not only in theory but rather very consequential applications in business, namely, the world of manufacturing.

Keywords:
Optimisation Theory, Ant Colony Optimization, Flexible Manufacturing, Virtual Cellular Manufacturing