Grammatical evolution in developing optimal inventory policies for serial and distribution supply chains

Michael Phelan and Seán McGarraghy

International Journal of Production Research, 2016, vol. 54, issue 1, 336-364

Abstract: Recently, there has been a growing literature on biologically inspired algorithms, particularly genetic algorithms and genetic programming, applied to supply chain modelling and inventory control optimisation. Due to the rigidity of the genetic algorithms approach, it is difficult to change the underlying model logic and add richness to the supply chain. While genetic programming provides a more flexible approach than that provided by genetic algorithms, to date its application has been limited to small supply chain modelling problems in relation to optimal inventory policies. This research applies Grammatical Evolution, a relatively new biologically inspired algorithm, to the field of supply chain optimisation, employing human readable rules called grammars. These grammars provide a single mechanism to describe a variety of complex structures and can incorporate the domain knowledge of the practitioner to bias the algorithm towards regions of the search space containing better solutions. Results are presented showing Grammatical Evolution is at least competitive in cost terms, and superior in flexibility, with these methods applicable to any supply chain of the serial or distribution type. Furthermore, Grammatical Evolution shows an adaptive ability that augurs well for supply chains in dynamic environments, such as disruption.

Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00207543.2015.1085653 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tprsxx:v:54:y:2016:i:1:p:336-364

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TPRS20

DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2015.1085653

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Research is currently edited by Professor A. Dolgui

More articles in International Journal of Production Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().