MC supply chain distributed scheduling based on heterogeneous multiple ant colony algorithm

Abstract

The deficiencies of the existing Mass Customization ( MC) supply chain scheduling models were summarized. According to the characteristics of distributed scheduling and large scaled computing, a MC supply chain scheduling model was designed. Heterogeneous multiple ant colony algorithm was presented to achieve this scheduling model. This algorithm introduced more than one type of ant colony. All types of ant colonies with different pheromone updating mechanism and searching traits had mutual compensation of advantages as well as mutual competitive exclusion so that they can potentially cooperate smoothly. Collaborations among ant colonies distributed in different location of supply chain fully took the advantages of whole computing resources of supply chain, obtained fairly solving speed, and fulfilled scheduling requirements of multi- order including supplier selection and inter-enterprise scheduling. Finally practical manufacture case was used to prove the proposed algorithm model's validity, stability and order adaptability.