Accepted Manuscript

Title: Flexible job shop scheduling under condition-based

maintenance: Improved version of imperialist competitive
algorithm

Authors: M. Zandieh, A.R. Khatami, Seyed Habib A. Rahmati

PII: S1568-4946(17)30242-9
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2017.04.060
Reference: ASOC 4193

To appear in: Applied Soft Computing

Received date: 24-11-2015

Revised date: 2-4-2017
Accepted date: 26-4-2017

Please cite this article as: M.Zandieh, A.R.Khatami, Seyed Habib A.Rahmati,
Flexible job shop scheduling under condition-based maintenance: Improved
version of imperialist competitive algorithm, Applied Soft Computing
Journalhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2017.04.060

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Flexible job shop scheduling under condition-based maintenance:
Improved version of imperialist competitive algorithm

M. Zandieha,1, A.R. Khatamib, Seyed Habib A. Rahmatib

a
Department of Industrial Management, Management and Accounting Faculty, Shahid
Beheshti University, G.C., Tehran, Iran
b
Faculty of Industrial & Mechanical Engineering, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University,
Qazvin, Iran

Corresponding author; Email-address: m_zandieh@sbu.ac.ir

Graphical abstract
Flowchart of the hybrid ICA-SA algorithm

Start

Create Initial Solutions and

cost evaluate then

Form imperialists and

colonies

Are stop
End Yes conditions Imperialist competition
Satisfied ?

No

Assimilate Colonies
And cost evaluate then Update total cost of Emprires

Improve Every imperialist Exchange the best colony

Using simulated annealing with imperialist No

Yes

Is there a colony
Do revolution for every
better than it’s
colony in all empires
Imperialist ?

1
Highlights

 We simulate a condition based maintenance for flexible job shop scheduling

problem and suppose the combination of sigmoid function and Gaussian
distribution in order to improve the condition based maintenance simulation.
 We propose an improved imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) for flexible
job shop scheduling problem with the objective of makespan minimization.
 Experimental result proves the high performance of novel ICA in comparison
with standard ICA.

Abstract

Maintenance activities have been ignored in many studies on scheduling problems where all
machines are assumed to be available without interruption in the planning horizon. However,
in realistic situations, they might be unavailable due to preventive maintenance, basic
maintenance or unforeseen breakdowns. In this paper, we simulate a condition-based
maintenance (CBM) for flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP) and consider the
combination of Sigmoid function and Gaussian distribution to improve the CBM simulation.
This study proposes an improved imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) for the FJSP
scheduling problem with the objective of the makespan minimization. The performance of the
proposed algorithm is enhanced with a hybridization of ICA with simulated annealing (SA),
after diagnosing standard ICA disadvantages and shortcomings. This ICA also includes a
simulation part to handle CBM requirements. Various parameters of the novel ICA are
reviewed to calibrate the algorithm with the help of the Taguchi experimental design.
Experimental results show the high performance of the novel ICA in comparison with the
standard ICA. The obtained results demonstrate that the novel ICA is an effective algorithm
for FJSP under CBM. Finally, the performance of ICA is evaluated compared to other popular
algorithms.

Keywords: Condition-based maintenance; Flexible job shop scheduling; Simulation;

Imperialist competitive algorithm; Simulated annealing

2
1. Introduction

In order to accommodate the production lines to the customers’ and markets’ requirements,
flexible manufacturing has always been considered in various industries by researchers. One
of the efficient flexible manufacturing environments is a flexible job-shop problem (FJSP),
which is an extended derivation of a classical job-shop scheduling problem to meet the
requirements of modern job-shop. Scheduling of FJSP includes two sub-problems which are
assignment and sequencing of operations. Assignment is referred to allocate operations to the
machines which have the eligibility to perform these operations, while sequencing is referred
to sequence the assigned operations to the machines. In this FJSP, operations can be processed
by a set of available machines having the required eligibility. Since scheduling of FJSP is a
NP-hard problem, many heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms have been proposed and used
to deal with it. Although both production scheduling and maintenance planning aim to increase
not only the productivity, but also some performance indicators such as overall equipment
effectiveness (OEE), in many studies, these two items have been investigated separately.

The un-planned maintenance strategy used to be typical for many years. In this strategy, which
was based on run to failure (RTF), maintenance activities were done when a failure occurred.
Nowadays manufacturing maintenance is a means of decreasing the probability of failures,
reducing the production cost, and increasing the reliability. Some of the planned maintenance
strategies are listed below:

 Preventive maintenance (PM)

 Total productive maintenance (TPM)
 Reliability centered maintenance (RCM)

There are two main methods for PM as mentioned below:

 Time-based maintenance (TBM)

 Condition-based maintenance (CBM)

The time-based maintenance (TBM) is a task, in which we perform periodic preventive

maintenance including periodical lubricating, calibrating, cleaning, adjustment, repair,
refurbishment, and replacement which procrastinates the deterioration processes leading to
failures. One of the main assumptions of TBM is estimating the failure behavior of an
equipment like the mean operating time between failures (MTBF) that is roughly known for

3
the equipment and machinery degrading in normal usage based on statistics or experience [1].
Despite the fact that TBM can reduce the probability of machine failure or the frequency of
unplanned emergency repairs, it cannot eliminate the occurrence of probably catastrophic
failures. Under a situation of uncertainty, it is very complicated to properly plan maintenance
activities in advance. Therefore, the maintenance personnel need to work under emergency
conditions [2]. CBM is a maintenance program that recommends maintenance actions based
on the information collected through condition monitoring. CBM attempts to avoid
unnecessary maintenance tasks by taking maintenance actions only when there is evidence of
unusual behaviors of a physical asset. A CBM program, if properly established and effectively
implemented, can noticeably reduce the maintenance cost by reduction in the number of
unnecessary scheduled preventive maintenance operations [3]. One of the principle
assumptions of CBM is that we can detect the existing indicative prognostic parameters and
determine the possibility of failure of equipment before its occurrence. Prognostic parameters
provide the indication of potential problems and initial faults causing an equipment or
component to be deviated from the acceptable performance level. In maintenance, common
problems of an equipment are ageing and deterioration. The deterioration trend of critical
components can also be recognized through a trend analysis of the equipment condition data
[4]. Availability of machines during the planning horizon is one of the commonest
presumptions in many studies into scheduling problems. However, machines availability
periods cannot be ignored in reality and also machines might not be available due to several
reasons such as the need for maintenance activities.

There are three main types of problems in unavailability periods that a job is incompletely
processed before a machine is stopped for maintenance activities as listed hereunder:

 Semi-resumable: there is a need for an extra set-up time when job processing is
resumed.
 Resumable: processing can be continued from the point that the job had been stopped
once maintenance activities are done.
 Non-resumable: the job has to be fully reprocessed after maintenance activities if its
processing is stopped by maintenance activities on a machine.

This study assumes that all jobs are non-resumable. Moreover, it assumes that either the time
of doing maintenance activities and their durations are fixed or they change within a time

4
window. Since this paper is based on condition-based maintenance, the time of performing the
maintenance activities and their durations are varied.

Based on the literature on trouble shooting tables and analyses including root cause failure
analysis (RCFA) methods and the diversity of machines age, the decreased rate of degradation
might vary and, consequently, we have used Sigmoid function and Gaussian distribution in
order to have more flexibility in a simulated environment along with getting closer to the
reality.

In this study, we simulate condition-based maintenance (CBM) for FJSP and propose a
combination of sigmoid function and Gaussian distribution in order to improve the CBM
simulation.

Meanwhile, in all evolutionary algorithms, the best answer is always of utmost importance and
value. Therefore, well-known algorithms implement various strategies to take the benefit from
the effect of the best answer in conducting their optimization process. In relation with an
imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), the best answer is known as imperialist. However,
ICA optimization operators, including revolution and assimilation, are defined for colonies but
not specifically for the best answer. Therefore, a specific operator on the best answer can be
expected to be required to benefit from this opportunity. In order to overcome this weakness in
the proposed ICA, we consider the best answer as the input of a simulated annealing (SA)
algorithm. This operator can empower the imperialist. This algorithm is also reinforced by
simulation process to have the power of managing the proposed model. In this simulator, a
novel degradation function is also suggested. The proposed solution structure is consistent with
the proposed problem. It is also flexible for both continuous algorithms, such as ICA or particle
swarm optimization (PSO), and discrete algorithms.

The effect of the proposed ICA algorithm is proved through comparison with a standard ICA
algorithm based on different test problems. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is compared with
the popular algorithms namely genetic algorithm (GA) and PSO.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Literature review related to scheduling problems
with availability constraints is discussed in Section 2. The problem formulation is described in
Section 3. Section 4 presents condition-based maintenance simulation. Meta-heuristic
algorithms implemented for solving the research problem are presented in Section 5. Section

5
6 presents computational results including Taguchi experimental design and the outputs of the
algorithms. Finally, the concluding remarks are provided in Section 7.

2. Literature review

In this section, we will review the literature on scheduling problems with restrictions in the
availability of machines. Graves and Lee [5] studied single machine scheduling problems
where maintenance activities must be performed within certain intervals and the time for the
maintenance is a variable decision. In addition, they assumed that jobs are semi-resumable.
Minimizing the total weighed job completion times as well as minimizing the maximum
lateness were considered as objective functions. They studied this problem under two scenarios
related to the planning horizon which can be long and short in relation to the maximum
allowable time between maintenance periods.

Schmidt [6] reviewed the results related to deterministic scheduling problems with availability
constraints published before 1998 and has surveyed intractability results, polynomial
optimization and approximation algorithms. Liao and Chen [7] investigated a single-machine
scheduling problem under several maintenance periods with the objective of minimizing the
maximum tardiness objection and non-resumable jobs. They developed a branch-and-bound
algorithm along with a heuristic algorithm to solve this problem.

Cassady and Kutanoglu [8] proposed an integrated model that considered the production
scheduling and maintenance planning simultaneously with the objective of minimizing total
expected weighted completion time of jobs and proved that using this model was effective in
reduction in the objective function value. Sortrakul et al. [9] developed genetic algorithms to
solve the integration of the production scheduling and preventive maintenance planning for a
single machine problem introduced by [8]. Sadfi et al. [10] proposed a rough algorithm called
MSPT to solve the single machine scheduling problem subjected to a single period of
maintenance with the aim of minimizing the total completion time. Chen [11] presented two
optimization models and a heuristic for a single machine scheduling problem with flexible and
periodic maintenance to minimize the makespan when the jobs are non-resumable. Chen [12]
considered a single machine scheduling problem under several maintenance periods where
each maintenance period was scheduled after a periodic time interval with the objective of
minimizing the number of tardy jobs and non-resumable jobs. A heuristic based on Moore’s

6
algorithm was developed to solve this problem and its performance has been compared to a
branch-and-bound algorithm.

Regarding different objective functions, Ying et al. [13] investigated four single machine
scheduling problems with maintenance activity between two sequential jobs. They proposed
an exact algorithm to deal with problems. The objective function of one of problems was to
minimize mean lateness, while the objective function of others is to maximize tardiness, total
flow time, and mean tardiness. Zhang et al. [14] dealt with a single machine scheduling problem
when the number of maintenance activities was fixed. They inquired two objective functions
as the makespan and the total completion time. In addition, they designed two polynomial-time
algorithms to achieve the best solution for this NP-hard problem. Cui and Lu [15] studied
resumable and non-resumable single machine scheduling problems under preventive
maintenances. They developed Earliest Release Date-Longest Processing Time (ERD-LPT)
and a branch-and-bound algorithm as two complementary algorithms to solve this problem.

Pan et al. [16] proposed a model for the production scheduling and preventive maintenance
planning simultaneously with the aim of minimizing the maximum tardiness. In order to
resemble the real industry requirements, a variable maintenance time subjected to machine
degradation was considered. Liao et al. [17] considered a two-parallel machine problem where
one machine is not available during a period of time for preventive maintenances or periodical
repairs with the objective of the makespan minimization. They developed optimality
algorithms to solve non-resumable and resumable cases. They extended the results to two
unavailable periods, one for each machine [18]. Yang et al. [19] simulated the condition-based
maintenance with the predicted probabilities failure rate applied to each machine in the
manufacturing system. They used a genetic algorithm to find improved maintenance schedules
for a manufacturing system. They also considered corrective maintenance, scheduled
maintenance, and condition-based maintenance in a simulation environment. Liao and Sheen
[20] considered machine availability and eligibility constraints simultaneously to study parallel
machine scheduling problems with the aim of minimizing the makespan. They proposed a
binary search algorithm to solve this problem. Mellouli et al. [21] studied the identical parallel
machine scheduling problem with a planned maintenance period on each machine to minimize
the sum of completion times. They proposed three methods and several heuristics to solve this
problem. Chouikhi et al. [22] presented condition-based maintenance model for a single-unit
system of production. The purpose of this model was to minimize the cost of maintenance and

7
inspection time by determining the optimal inspection. They proposed Nelder–Mead method
to determine inspection optimal dates.

Lee [23] studied the two-machine flow shop scheduling problem under availability constraint
for one or both machines with semi-resumable jobs. They developed dynamic programming
algorithm and heuristic methods for solving this problem. Allaoui and Artiba [24] Considered
resumable and non-resumable jobs in hybrid flow shop scheduling problems under
maintenance constraints with the objective of minimization of flow time. They also considered
set-up, cleaning, and transportation times in this problem in order to integrate the simulation
and the optimization of three dispatching rules, i.e., SA with LPT, SPT and EDD. A flexible
simulation model were used. Aggoune [25] studied flow shop scheduling problems under
preventive maintenance activities. It was assumed that starting time of maintenance is fixed or
in the time windows. A heuristic approach based on genetic algorithm and Tabu search (TS) is
proposed to solve the makespan minimization problem. Allaoui and Artiba [26] studied the
two-stage hybrid flow shop problem with one machine on the first stage and several machines
on the second stage under availability constraints with non-resumable jobs. In order to
minimize the makespan, they proposed a branch-and-bound algorithm for small size problems
and three heuristics algorithm (list algorithm (LS), LPT heuristic, and Hheuristic) for large size
problems.

Safari et al. [27] searched the scheduling flow shops problem under condition-based
maintenance to minimize the makespan and they proposed an algorithm as a combination of
simulated annealing and tabu search to solve this problem. They assumed jobs are non-
resumable and used log-normal to reduce degradation value of machines.

Ali and Espinouse [28] proposed a branch-and-bound algorithm as an exact method to schedule
two-machine flow-shop problems with a deteriorating maintenance activity on the second
machine. Najari et al. [29] considered one maintenance activity over the scheduling horizon in
a permutation flow shop problem. They inquired the best positions of the maintenance activities
such that the makespan was minimized. Lin et al. [30] evaluated the reliability of a multistate
flexible flow shop problem under the assumption of the stochastic capacity such as
maintenance, partial failure, the possibility of failure, and unexpected situations. Huang and
Yu [31] addressed deteriorating maintenance as the main factor influencing the adoption of the
clean production in a two-stage multiprocessor flow shop scheduling problem. They proposed

8
an ant colony optimization algorithm and particle swarm optimization in order to solve this
problem.

Zribi et al. [32] considered a job-shop scheduling problem with availability constraints. They
proposed a heuristic and a genetic algorithm to solve the assignment and sequencing problems,
respectively. Zribi and Borne [33] studied a flexible job-shop scheduling problem where
machines are unavailable to carry out maintenance activities. They suggested an assignment
technique to solve the assignment problem and solved the sequencing problem by a hybrid
genetic algorithm.

Fnaiech et al. [34] considered preventive maintenance periods in a joint job shop scheduling
problem. They combined the heuristic displacement of genes (HDG) and the modified genetic
algorithm (MGA) as two new techniques to solve job shop scheduling problems regarding
maintenance activities. Fitouri et al. [35] investigated a simultaneous scheduling of a job shop
problem and a predictive maintenance planning. The makespan and the cost of a resumable job
shop were considered as two main functions and a heuristic method was proposed to achieve
the best solution.

Gao et al. [36] studied a flexible job shop scheduling problem under preventive maintenance
whereas the period of maintenance activities were not fixed and should be determined during
the scheduling procedure. They proposed a hybrid genetic algorithm and two kinds of
neighborhood mechanisms to solve this problem.

Wang and Yu [37] studied a flexible job-shop scheduling problem under preventive
maintenance, where maintenance activities are either flexible in a time window or fixed in
advance. They also considered maintenance resource constraints and proposed a filtered beam
search to solve this problem. Li et al. [38] studied a multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling
problem (MOFJSP) with preventive maintenance activities to minimize the makespan, the total
workload, and the maximal workload. In order to solve MOFJSP, they used novel discrete
artificial bee colony algorithm. Delfard and Mohamadi [39] developed a new mathematical
modeling for MOFJSP with maintenance activities. They investigated a hybrid genetic
algorithm and a simulated annealing algorithm to solve MOFJSP. Moradi et al. [40]
investigated the minimization of the makespan and the minimization of the system
unavailability for a flexible job shop problem with preventive maintenance. They considered
number of maintenance activities where maintenance intervals were flexible in the planning
horizon. They also adapted two multi-objective evolutionary algorithms to solve this problem.

9
Li and Pan [41] considered multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling under both the
preventive maintenance constraints and the non-maintenance constraints cases. Discrete
chemical-reaction optimization algorithm was used to solve both cases of the problem in their
investigation. Ziaee [42] studied a fast heuristic algorithm based on a constructive procedure
to solve multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem under preventive maintenance
constraints.

Celen and Djurdjanovic [43] investigated a decision-making method to integrate the

maintenance scheduling and product sequencing for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS).
They evaluated the performance decision-making policy against the traditional operation
independent condition-based maintenance policy by changing relative costs of maintenance,
penalties of unmet production, production goals, and efficacy of maintenance. Thornblad et Al.
[44] considered FJSP under limited availability due to preventive maintenance. Minimizing a
weighted sum of completion times and tardiness of jobs was studied as the objective function
of the scheduling problem. Singh et al. [45] studied random machine breakdown in robust
flexible job shop scheduling problem. They proposed multi objective quantum particle swarm
optimization to optimize this issue. Ye and Ma [46] studied the makespan and maintenance
costs as two functions in a flexible job-shop problem. They investigated preventive
maintenance as decision variables, which can only be set to 0 or 1 in during the whole planning.
Mokhtari and Dadgar [47] proposed a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to deal
with a flexible job shop scheduling problem under preventive maintenance. They used
simulated annealing (SA) to generate a set of feasible decision variables, and transfered them
to the Monte Carlo (MC) simulator to be evaluated by minimizing the total number of max
tardy jobs after preventive maintenance. Ahmadi et al. [48] studied the stability of a flexible
job shop scheduling problem under random machine breakdown as stable scheduling. NSGA-
II and NRGA were proposed to combine the improvement of the makespan and stability. They
used simulation approach to evaluate the stability of the schedule after random machine
breakdown.

Regarding to availability constrains motivated by preventive maintenance, Ma et al. [49]

presented a comprehensive literature review on scheduling problems dealing with different
exact and approximation algorithms in different shop environments, i.e., single machine,
parallel machines, flow shop, open shop, and job shop, with respect to resumable, non-
resumable and semi-resumable cases. As presented in the literature review, the majority of the
studies are only restricted to preventive maintenance (PM) or breakdown. Meanwhile, as

10
mentioned in the introduction, new maintenance models are implemented in the nowadays
maintenance departments. One of these models is CBM which is rarely considered in the
studies according to the literature presented here. This model attempts to avoid unnecessary
maintenance activities by taking maintenance actions only when there is an evidence of unusual
behaviors of a physical asset which noticeably decreases the maintenance cost by reducing the
number of unnecessary scheduled preventive maintenance operations. Therefore, in this
research, FJSP is reinforced by CMB to handle maintenance activities. Moreover, in the
proposed CBM, by combining two normal distribution function and Sigmoid function, a
degradation function is suggested. Since meta-heuristic solution structures are classified into
continuous and discrete structures, a flexible solution structure is proposed for both classes.
Finally, a hybrid effective ICA algorithm, constituting the structure of the proposed model, is
suggested to solve the mentioned complex problem i.e. FJSP.

3. Flexible job shop scheduling problem model

FJSP encompasses n jobs, i.e. j1  j n , in which each job i includes ni operations. FJSP also
considers m machines so that each machine has the eligibility to process either all or a series
of operations. If all machines have the potential to process all the operations, it is referred as a
total flexibility, while a machine which cannot process all the operations is referred as a partial
flexibility. A includes all machines and A ik is a series of machines which can process the

operation O ik . Therefore, if A ik  A , it indicates a partial flexibility and if A ik  A , it

indicates a total flexibility. In fact, this problem is to allocate operations to machines which are
able to process them and, consequently, determine the sequence of the operations allocated to
each machine.

3.1. Assumptions of scheduling problem

The problem is formulated with the following assumptions:

 Machines are not dependent on each other.

 Jobs are independent from one another. There are not any prioritized constraints amid
the operations of various jobs. Nevertheless, there are prioritized constraints among the
operations of the same job.

11
  At the beginning of the planning horizon (time zero), all jobs and machines are
available.
 Setup time of machines and move time between machines are not significant.
 At a given time, a machine cannot process more than one operation.
 Pre-emption is not feasible, which means each operation must be fulfilled without
interruption as soon as it initiates.
 There are probably some machines which can do operation O ik either at the same time
or at a different processing time.
 Jobs are always processed without error.
 Machines are not available always due to maintenance operations.

3.2. Indices

Indices which are used to model our problem as listed below:

i ,h: in d e x o f jo b s : i , h  I  1, 2 , ..., n 

j: in d e x o f m a c h in e s : j  J  1, 2 , ..., m 

k , g : in d e x o f o p e ra tio n : k ,g k i
 1, 2 , ..., n i 

3.3. Parameters

n : to ta l n u m b e r o f jo b s ;

m : to ta l n u m b e r o f m a c h in e s ;

n i : to ta l n u m b e r o f o p e ra tio n o f jo b i ;

o ik : o p e ra tio n o f k jo b i ;

A ik : s e t o f a v a ila b le m a c h in e s fo r o ik ;

t ik j : p ro c e s s in g tim e o f o ik o n m a c h in e j ;

3.4. Decision Variables

1 , if m a c h in e j is s e le c te d f o r o ik
x ik j
 
0, o th e r w is e

C ik
 c o m p le to in tim e o f o ik

12
3.5. Mathematical formulation

By using the above notation, the MILP model is presented as follows.

M in C  m ax C  1 i n (1)
m ax in i

S.t :

(2)
C ik
C i  k 1
 t ik j x ik j
i, j k K i

 C C C x x  0  i ,h  I
 hg ik hgj hgj ik j  (3)
 k ,g  k
V  C x
i
C  t ik j x  0
 ik hg hgj ik j   j  J

x ik j
1 iI , k k i
j
(4)
x ik j
 0  i  I ,k  k i
, j  A ik

x ik j
  0 ,1  i  I ,k  k i , j  J

C ik
 0  i  I ,k  k i
(5)

Constraint (2) ensures that operations will not be processed unless their prerequisites are met.
Constrain (3) ensures that there will be no overlaps in operations. In other words, a machine
can only process one operation at a time. Constrain (4) states that an operation of a specific job
will be only processed by a machine. Constrain (5) guarantees that o ik is not allocated to a

machine which is not eligible to work on o ik .

4. Condition-based maintenance simulation

4.1. Assumption of maintenance planning

The maintenance simulation has the following assumptions:

13
  There are no maintenance resource constraints;
 The degradation is identified only through inspections;
 If maintenance processing is interrupted by any maintenance activities, it must be
reprocessed fully on a machine which is called non-resumable;
 Inspections intervals are planned based on regular periodic times;
 Shock, degradation, and recovery values are differentiated based on different types of
machines;
 All machines have the same the PM and BM threshold;
 Processing jobs can be continued during the inspection period without having them
stopped;
 The number of shocks and degradation value related to each shock as well as total value
of degradation of all shocks for each machine is detected within inspection intervals
and only the total value of degradation of all shocks is compared with the threshold;
 After maintenance, if the degradation value does not meet zero, the remainder
degradation value will be added to the next degradation value which will be calculated
from the following inspection;
 Recovery value is calculated in order to reduce the degradation value only after
preventive maintenance;
 Since the degradation value is set to zero after basic maintenance, recovery value is not
required to be calculated accordingly; and,
 There is no restriction for inspection as it can occur at any time of processing.

4.2. Simulation description

Number of shocks affecting machine j is a random integer number with poison distribution.

In other words, if N S j denotes the number of shocks on machine j , NS j

~ P o is s o n  j
S 
.
Each shock S causes degradation with the value of 𝐷𝑉𝑠,𝑗 on machine j . DV s,j
follows the

E x p ( j
(d )
exponential distribution, i.e., D V (s , j )
). Sum of degradation values for all

shocks, affecting machine j , is the total amount of degradation. Hence, total degradation after
a set of shocks is equal to Eq. (6).

NS j

 deg j
  DV s,j
(6)
s 1

14
∆𝑑𝑒𝑔𝑗 is calculated after completion of every operation on machine j, and degradation level of
machine j is modified as Eq. (7).

deg j
 deg j
  deg j
(7)

In order to evaluate degradation amount in each inspection, we define D L1 and DL2 as levels
of degradation. Inspections are carried out on regular periodic times on all machines. If
inspection time lies on the scheduled processing time interval of an operation, and degradation
level is larger than or equal to D L1 , then the operation will be delayed and will be started after
maintenance operation completion. In the latter case, since the maintenance operation of any
type (basic or preventive) is not avoidable, and the operation is non-resemble after interruption,
the operation is being delayed. In the maintenance phase, if degradation level for machine j is
larger than or equal to DL2 , basic maintenance (BM) is carried out. If degradation level of

machine j belongs to the interval ( D L 1 , D L 2 ) , then a preventive maintenance (PM) is launched.

After a BM, degradation level of the machine is set to zero. After a PM, degradation level is
reduced proportionally by a factor of  j . In other words:

deg j
 deg j
– deg j
 1   j deg j
(8)

t bm is the duration of a BM operation on machine j and it is a random variable with a log-normal

distribution, namely lo g  n o r m a l   j
t bm 
,
2
j
tbm 
 . Similarly, t pm
is the duration of a PM operation

on machine j , and it is a random variable with log-normal distribution, namely


lo g -n o r m a l  j
t pm 
,
2
j
t pm 
.
The proportional reduction rate of degradation, i.e.,  j , is a random variable belonging to the

interval [ 0 , 1] . A sample of  j
is generated as follows: A random number with normal

distribution of N   j
,
2
 j  , denoted by 𝜑𝑗 , is generated. Then, the value of  j
related to

𝜑𝑗 is obtained by Eq. (9).

1
 j
 
(9)
1e
j

15
which ensures that  j   0 ,1  . The used function belongs to a family of functions with general

name of Sigmoid. It denotes the proposed probability density function (PDF) for  j
with


s ig -n o rm a l   , 
j
2
 j
 . Statistical histograms of the sample of Sig-Normal distribution, using
various values for   and   , is presented in Figure 1.
j j

[Please insert Fig. 1 here]

Briefly, the simulation algorithm has the following steps:

1. For each machine j , do steps 2 through 9;

2. Set degradation level of machine j to zero ( d e g j

 0 );

3. For each operation o ik which is assigned to machine j , do steps 4 through 9;

4. If d e g j
 D L 2 , then the BM operation with the duration of t b m is launched at inspection

time and deg j

 0 . Then, go to step 7;

5. If D L1  deg j
 DL2 then PM operation with duration of t pm
is launched at

inspection time;

6. The proportional reduction rate of degradation  j 

s ig -n o rm a l   , 
j
2
 j
 is randomly
generated and degradation level is updated by Eq. (10) as follows;

deg j
 1   j  deg j
(10)

7. If inspection time has overlap with o ik and maintenance is performed, then o ik is delayed
and its starting time is set to the completion time of PM or BM operations;

8. After completion of o ik , the total degradation  deg j

is calculated and degradation level

of machine j is updated by Eq. (11) as follows;

deg j
 deg j
  deg j
(11)

9. If start time of o ik is modified (the operation is delayed after a PM and BM operation),

then start times of next operations for this machine and related operations will be updated.

16
5. Proposed methodology

As mentioned, the problem is NP-hard. Therefore, a meta-heuristic algorithm is an approach

to solve this complex problem. Based on the characteristics of the problem, a basic population-
based meta-heuristic like GA [9, 19, 25, 32] or a basic local search meta-heuristic like TS [50-
53] as well as a combination of both [54] can be implemented to find the optimal/near optimal
solution for the research problem. Our preliminary experiments indicate population-based
meta-heuristic algorithms can present solutions with higher quality compared to local search
meta-heuristic algorithms in less computational time. Therefore, the standard ICA as a
population-based meta-heuristic algorithms accompanied by a local search algorithm is
proposed to deal with the research problem.

5.1. Representation scheme

In this section, we present a new method to change the continuous domains to discrete domains
so that obtained solutions are feasible. According to Gao et al. [36], a discrete valued solution
structure can be used to code the solution of FJSP. In this structure, the solution is made up of
two parts, namely v 1 and v 2 . The number of elements of v 1 and v 2 is equal to the total number

of operations (TNO). It is possible to define a scalar index for every operation o ik , starting from

1 to o 11 , and from TNO to o nn

i
. If index l is related to operation k of job i , this fact is

mentioned by o ik
 ol . The l th element of v1 is denoted by v 1[l ] and it determines which

machines are used to process operation o l . So, it is necessary to assume v 1  l   A l  A ik .

The second part of solution structure, v 2 , defines the operations process sequence. v 2 contains

exactly ni elements with the value of i , and k th element of v 2 with the value of i corresponds

to o ik . Hence an operation is related to each element of v 2

, which defines that it is being
processed among other operations.

Since ICA works in continuous domains, it is necessary to define a real-valued solution

structure. The proposed solution structure has also two parts. The first part v 1 , similar to v 1 in

discrete structure, defines the machine operation assignment. v 1 [ l ] is used to determine which

machine is assigned to process the operation ol . It is assumed v 1 [ l ]  [ 0 ,1) . If the number of

elements in set Al is denoted by Al , then it can be proved that:

17
 f  l    A l v 1  l   1   1, 2 , 3,  , A l  (12)

where  x  indicates the greatest integer number which is smaller than x .if A l ,f [l ]
indicates

f th
element in the set Al , then m [ l ]  A l ,f [l ]
is the index of machine to which the operation

𝑜𝑙 is assigned. Using this method of solution encoding, it is possible to utilize continuous

domain optimization algorithms for FJSP. In addition, a feasible solution is obtained for every
instance of maintenance structure.

Similar to v 2
, the second part v 2
determines the sequence of operations. All the elements of

v 2
belong to the interval [ 0 , 1] . If elements of v 2
are sorted (in an ascending or descending

order-no difference), element v [ l ] will be replaced in the index o l

sorted. Hence, starting v 2

yields a permutation of number 1 to TNO, and it is known that for every integer number
between 1 and TNO, there is an operation like o l  o ik . Therefore, v 2 can be used to create an
ordered list of operations. If the job indices of the operations in the ordered list are gathered
into a vector, the vector is just like v 2 in the discrete structure.

A flexible job shop scheduling problem with four machines and four jobs is shown in Table 1,
where each job requires four operations on each machine. For this problem, changing the
continuous domains to discrete domains is depicted in Figure 2.

[Please insert Table 1 here]

[Please insert Fig. 2 here]

5.2. Imperialist competitive algorithm

Imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) is a new meta-heuristic optimization algorithm,

inspired by the socio-political evolution. ICA was initially proposed by Atashpaz et al. [55].
Due to the evolutionary nature of ICA, it can be considered as an evolutionary algorithm. Apart
from this, due to the role of multi-agent and swarm-base behavior of ICA, it can be considered
as a member of swarm intelligence methods group.

In ICA, potential solutions of the optimization problem are called country. Analogous to the
political history, countries are imperialist or colonies of imperialists. Every imperialist has its
own set of colonies, using the imperialist as an evolution target. The analogy between ICA and
real word political events and concepts is discussed in [55, 56], in detail. Of course, this version

18
is the basic version. ICA is also developed by dynamic parameter adaptions [57], fuzzy logic
[58], and many other extra effective agents as a part of an optimization process. As mentioned
in [55], steps of the standard ICA are as follows.

5.2.1 Initialization

In this step, n pop

initial countries (potential solutions) are generated randomly; n im p best

countries are selected to be imperialist. The remaining n col  n pop

 n im p countries are used to

create colony sets of the imperialists. Imperialist randomly possess colonies. The better the
imperialist is, the more its colonies are. In other words, the number of colonies for an
imperialist is proportional to its relative quality (power) to other imperialists.

5.2.2 Assimilation

In the beginning of each decade (iteration) of ICA, colonies of all imperialists are assimilated
to their imperialist. Assimilation leads colonies to have similar properties with their
corresponding imperialist. For example, in a two-dimensional space, the assimilation process
is performed as a linear motion toward an imperialist, with an angular deviation. A graphical
representation of this rule is presented in Figure 3 and one example is shown in Figure 4.

[Please insert Fig. 3 here]

In Figure 3,  is the assimilation factor and it is usually set to be   2

[Please insert Fig. 4 here]

5.2.3 Revolution

Similar to the mutation operator in genetic algorithm (GA) proposed by Haupt and Haupt [59],
the revolution operator is added to ICA to improve the exploration property of the algorithm.
In this phase, a colony is selected to be revolved with probability p and its position is randomly
changed in the search space.

5.2.4 Colony/Imperialist exchange

If a colony is better than its imperialist due to assimilation and revolution operations, the
position of the imperialist and the colony are changed, i.e., the colony becomes the imperialist
and vice versa. So, it is completely obvious that every imperialist is compared only to its best
colony, not to all its colonies.

19
5.2.5 Imperialist competition

In this step, the weakest colony of the weakest imperialist is possessed by other stronger
imperialists. This is carried out in a stochastic way. The possession probability for each
imperialist is related to its total cost. The better the imperialist is, the more likely it will possess
the weakest colony of the weakest empire. The total cost, which is used as comparison criterion
in this step, is defined by Eq. (13).

1 col
ni
TC i
 C i
  col
ni
 j 1
C ij (13)

where C i
and TC i
are cost and total cost values for imperialist i , respectively; col
ni is the

number of colonies in empire i; and C ij

is the cost related to j th colony in empire i . The

constant parameter  is the colonies consideration rate, and it is usually set to be smaller than
unity, i.e.,   1. In the imperialist competition step, if the weakest imperialist loses all of its
colonies, then this imperialist is collapsed. A collapsed imperialist is possessed by other
imperialists as a colony.

5.2.6 Check stopping criteria

If stopping criteria are satisfied, the algorithm continues until all the empires except the most
powerful one will collapse and all the colonies will be under the control of this unique empire
or determine an upper bound for the number of iterations. Then ICA terminates here; otherwise,
the next iteration will start from the assimilation step.

5.3. The novel ICA (hybridizing ICA with SA)

In the standard ICA, the positions of imperialists are fixed until they are exchanged for a
colony, and then converted to it. We believe this is a drawback of the standard ICA. So, we
tried to overcome it with the help of hybridization of SA and ICA. A new operator called
imperial improvement is added to the standard ICA by running a SA starting from imperialist
position to improve the position of the imperialist.

SA is a popular general–purpose and point–based optimization algorithm, inspired by

annealing process in metallurgy. In the metallurgical annealing process, it is aimed to transform
the structure of a material to a robust and strong one, by minimizing the energy of the whole
structure. Analogous to the natural annealing, a solution of SA for an optimization problem is

20
heated, i.e., randomly generated. Then, the solution is allowed to choose one of the nearby
locations in the neighborhood with a specific value of acceptance probability. The acceptance
probability depends on a global parameter T, namely temperature, which decreases as the
iterations of the algorithm pass.

Acceptance probability is formulated as a Boltzmann–like equation by Kirkpatrick et al. [60].

Generally speaking, if the current solution is denoted by x and the newly created solution is
new new new new
denoted by x , then the acceptance probability of x is P (x , x ,T ) . If x is better

,T )  1 .
new new
than x , it is accepted, i.e., P (x , x Otherwise, the value of P (x , x ,T ) is
obtained randomly in the interval [ 0 , 1] . This probability value is formulated as an equation
similar to Boltzmann’s equation proposed by Kirkpatrick et al. [60]. Their formula for the


where ∆ is the difference between fitness of x

new
,T )  e
new
acceptance probability is (x , x T

and x, i.e.,   f x new

  f  x  . There are several temperature reduction schemes, if the
exponential cooling is utilized. The temperature at iteration k of the algorithm is defined by Eq.
(14).

T  T
k
T k k 1 0 (14)

where 0  1 is the reduction rate of temperature. It is obvious that, the smaller α is, the
slower the temperature decreases. There are other cooling methods which are not considered
in this work. The Pseudo code of SA is as follows:

− Initialize temperature;
− Create random solution x and evaluate f (x ) ;

− Store x in x b est
;
− While stopping criteria are not satisfied:
new new
Create a neighbor solution x and evaluate f (x );

new new
Accept x with probability of P (x , x ,T ) ;
If x is better than x b est
, store x in x b est
;
Reduce temperature.
− End while.

21
Generally, SA implements neighborhood structures to create new points in the search space.
For every type of problem, it is possible to define a neighborhood creation scheme in a specific
way. Herein we define a randomized procedure for neighborhood creation for FJSP. The
required steps for the proposed scheme is as follows:

1
(1) With a probability of , go to step 2; otherwise go to step 3;
2

(2) Pick up a random element in the vector v 1 and replace it by a random number in the

interval [ 0 , 1] . Then, go to 6;
1
(3) With a probability of , go to step 4; otherwise go to step 5;
2

(4) Pick up two distinct elements in v 2 and swap their locations. Then, go to step 6;

(5) Pick up two distinct elements in v 2

and reverse the sequence between them
)Including themselves);
(6) End.

1
So, this procedure changes the assignment part v 1 with the probability of , and changes the
2

1
operation of the sequence v 2 with the probability of . Strictly speaking, with the probability
2

1
of , the operation order sequence is modified by swap operation, and it is modified with the
4

1
probability of by means of a reversion operation. The flowchart of the hybridization of ICA
4

and SA algorithms is presented in Figure 5 and cost evaluation is shown in Figure 6.

[Please insert Fig. 5 here]

[Please insert Fig. 6 here]

6. Computational Results

In this section, the proposed ICA is first tuned through Taguchi design method. Then, it is
compared with the standard ICA to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid operator.

22
In the final part of this section, the performance of the proposed ICA is analyzed compared to
other meta-heuristic algorithms.

6.1. Taguchi experimental design

In this section, we study the behavior of algorithm parameters to achieve better robustness of
the algorithm. Since appropriate design of parameters increases the efficiency of algorithms,
we calibrate the parameters of this algorithm using Taguchi method. Taguchi method is one of
robust designs for reducing response variation. In this method, the arrangement of experiments
is based on an orthogonal array (OA) that is provided to reduce the number of required
experiments.

In this paper, the considered control factors are the size of population, the number of
imperialist, the number of neighborhood, the number of simulation, beta factor of SA, T0 factor
of SA, and the maximum iteration of SA.

Different levels of these factors are shown in Table 2. Proposed levels of each control factor
were selected based on our experience. As shown in Table 2, the full factorial experiment
3  6  4, 374
6 1
design for the aforesaid seven factors requires experiment. It is obvious that
executing the whole experiments is not justifiable and economical. This being the case, we use
L 1 8 (3  6 )
6 1
as the fittest fractional design from the standard table of orthogonal arrays. This
OA was selected based on the degree of freedom for seven factors that is equal to:
1  6   3  1  1   6  1  18 . Hence, the appropriate array should have at least 18 rows.

The orthogonal array L18 which requires 18 experiments is presented in Table 3. Moreover, in
this method, the response evaluation is based on signal-to-noise ratios (S/N). Desirable and
undesirable values are determined by considering S/N ratios.

There are three categories of S/N ratio represented as smaller-the-better type, the larger-the-
better type, and the nominal-is-best type. Since the quality characteristic of this research is the
weighted sum of expected makespan and total tardiness, the S/N ratio has the characteristic of
“the larger-the-better” type, as shown in Eq. (15).

k
1
S /N ratio
 10L og (
k
 M ak e s p an ) (15)
i 1

23
[Please insert Table 2 here]

[Please insert Table 3 here]

The novel ICA was experimented based on the orthogonal array distribution method, so that
18 different level combinations of control factors were considered. In order to yield more
reliable information for each scenario in each of the six developed large problems, we tackled
each instance four times. Then, achieved results have been transformed to the S/N ratio.

In order to determine adjustment factors, we use the means of relative percentage deviations
(RPD) for the makespan. The RPD value is defined as follows:

m ak e s p an ijk  m in j ( m ak e s p an ijk )
R P D ijk  (16)
m in j ( m ak e s p an ijk )

In this formula, i, j and k indicate the index of the problem, the trail, and the replication,
respectively. In order to perform Taguchi experimental design, we implemented ICA using C#
and ran on a personal computer with a 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 3.00-GB of
RAM memory. Taguchi experimental design has been fulfilled with MINITAB 16. The
average S/N ratio at each level for objective function values are shown in Figure 7. As indicated
in Figure 7, better robustness of the algorithm is achieved when the parameters are set as
follows:

 The number of neighborhoods=10;

 The size of population= 90;
 The number of imperialist=10;
 The number of simulation=6;
 Beta factor of SA=1.9;
 T0 factor of SA=500; and,
 The maximum iteration of SA=20.

Analysis of variance (ANOVA), illustrated in Table 4, is performed for a statistical significance

test of the factors on the S/N values. The obtained result indicates that the following factors
have a significant impact on the robustness of ICA: the size of population, the number of
imperialist, beta factor of SA, and the maximum iteration of SA.

[Please insert Fig. 7 here]

24
[Please insert Table 4 here]

[Please insert Table 5 here]

6.2. Comparison of performance of novel ICA and standard ICA

After executing Taguchi experimental design and recognizing the desirable value of
parameters, we evaluate the performance of novel ICA in comparison with the standard ICA.
In order to achieve this objection, we adjust the parameters of the novel and standard ICA with
desirable values and we run ten medium and large size problems with the same CPU time for
10 times to get the results. The following hypothesis test is based on the difference between
the means of two populations, i.e., 𝜇 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝐼𝐶𝐴 and 𝜇 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝐼𝐶𝐴 , when the population standard
deviations are unknown.

𝐻0 : 𝜇 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝐼𝐶𝐴 = 𝜇 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝐼𝐶𝐴

𝐻1 : 𝜇 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝐼𝐶𝐴 < 𝜇 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝐼𝐶𝐴

The T-test is selected as a method for statistical testing of this hypothesis and the related results
are shown in Table 6. Individual value plot and box plot are shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9.
The computed 𝑃𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 for this problem is 0.003 which means that the null hypothesis was
rejected for all combinations at a significance level of 99.997%. In conclusion, the performance
of the novel ICA is considerably better than the standard ICA. The convergence diagram of the
proposed novel ICA versus the standard ICA for large and medium size problems are depicted
in Figure 10 and Figure 11.

[Please insert Table 6 here]

[Please insert Fig. 8 here]

[Please insert Fig. 9 here]

[Please insert Fig. 10 here]

[Please insert Fig. 11 here]

25
6.3. Comparison of the proposed ICA with other algorithms

Table 7 presents the summery information of the algorithms. The reported metrics are the
average of the runs of the algorithms (Cmax_Average) and the standard deviation of the runs
(Cmax_STDEV). Figure 11 compares the algorithms graphically. According to the observation
in Table 7 and Figure 11, from non-statistical viewpoint, the proposed ICA shows less or better
values in both metrics. The bold values in the last row of the Table1 also approve the superiority
of the proposed ICA.

[Please insert Table 7 here]

[Please insert Fig. 12 here]

Of course, this claim is not bone out statistically. According to Table 8 and Figure 12, 𝑃𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
of the analysis of variance of the algorithms are both more than the predetermined significant
level of the test (α=0.05). Therefore, it can be statistically proved that algorithms do not have
considerable statistical difference. Figure 2 presents the box plots of the algorithms as extra
evidence for equality manner of the algorithms. Of course, in both parts, the proposed ICA has
less height but it is not significantly different or superior.

[Please insert Table 8 here]

[Please insert Fig. 13 here]

7. Conclusions and future work

In this paper, we simulated condition-based maintenance in a flexible job shop scheduling

problem. We have recommended Sigmoid function and Gaussian distribution in order to have
more flexibility in the simulated environment and to reflect the real industry requirements.
Moreover, this study proposed a novel ICA algorithm in order to improve the standard ICA
and overcome the shortcomings of the traditional version. To do so, a basic SA algorithm is
accompanied by a standard ICA to enhance the performance of the standard ICA. Since ICA
operates in continuous domains, we presented a new method to change the continuous domains
to discrete domains. Then, the proposed ICA was tuned through Taguchi and compared with
the standard ICA. According to this results, the developed operator of ICA was more powerful
than the standard ICA. Moreover, the proposed ICA was compared with popular algorithms

26
GA and PSO with similar operators. Based on the considered measures and statistical tests, the
proposed ICA is at least as good as existing powerful algorithms. From non-statistical
viewpoint, the proposed ICA is also a little bit better than them.

In this paper, we addressed a few areas of research opportunities. We ignored maintenance

resource constraints, so we did not focus on logistics delay time (LDT) and Administrative
delay time (ADT) whereas both are very important in real world scenarios. Future studies can
consider maintenance resource constraints. Moreover, considering redundant allocation
problem (RAP) for the machines to increase the system reliability is of interest. Dual-resource
constraint of the machines (DRC) and maintenance crew is also suggestive.

27
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32
List of Figures

Fig. 1. Sig-Normal Function

Fig. 2. Example of exchanging the continuous domains to discontinuous domains

Fig. 3. colony Assimilation

33
Fig. 4. Example of colony Assimilation

34
 Start

Create Initial Solutions and

cost evaluate then

Form imperialists and

colonies

Are stop
End Yes conditions Imperialist competition
Satisfied ?

No

Assimilate Colonies
And cost evaluate then Update total cost of Emprires

Improve Every imperialist Exchange the best colony

Using simulated annealing with imperialist No

Yes

Is there a colony
Do revolution for every
better than it’s
colony in all empires
Imperialist ?

Fig. 5. Flowchart of the Hybrid ICA-SA Algorithm

35
 Get v1 and v1

According to v
1
Find machine operation assignment map

According to v 2
Find operation order sequence

Compute start And completion time of operations

Simulate the system for Nsim times By adding PMs and BMs to the operations Schedule and
compute Cmax for each simulation

Return mean of Cmax for Performed simulations

C max

Fig. 6. Flowchart of objective function

36
 T h e a v e r a g e S / N r a tio

N u m b e r o f n e ig h b o u rh o o d N u m b e r o f p o p u la t io n N u m b e r o f I m p e ria lis t
-5 2 . 3

-5 2 . 4

-5 2 . 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 1 2 3

N u m b e r o f S im u la t io n b e ta T0
-5 2 . 3

-5 2 . 4

-5 2 . 5
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3

M a xim u m it e ra t io n o f S A
-5 2 . 3

-5 2 . 4

-5 2 . 5
1 2 3

Fig.7. The S/N ratio at each level for objective function values

B o x p lo t o f n o v e l IC A , s ta n d a r d IC A

3500

3000

2500

2000
Da ta

1500

1000

500

0
n o v e l IC A s ta n d a r d IC A

Fig. 8. Boxplot of novel ICA, standard ICA

37
 In d iv id u a l V a lu e P lo t o f n o v e l IC A , s ta n d a r d IC A

3500

3000

2500

2000
Da ta

1500

1000

500

0
n o v e l IC A s ta n d a r d IC A

Fig. 9. Indivdual value plot of novel ICA,standard ICA

Fig. 10. Convergence diagram of novel ICA versus standard ICA for a large problem

38
Fig. 11. The graphical comparison of the algorithms on the metrics

39
Fig. 12. The Analysis of variance and box plots of the metrics

40
List of Tables

Table 1 Operation processing time

jobs Operations M1 M2 M3 M4
J1 O11 13 - 25 13
O12 21 16 10 30
O13 10 - 19 39
O14 20 10 20 -
J2 O21 14 15 - 30
O22 19 16 20 19
O23 31 - 15 21
O24 - 31 19 15
J3 O31 30 28 20 23
O32 21 - 14 16
O33 - 20 36 33
O34 34 25 - 35
J4 O41 10 12 18 -
O42 19 - 31 27
O43 23 17 - 35
O44 16 11 28 -

Table 2 Factor levels

Factors Level
Size of population 50-70-90
Number of imperialist 5-10-15
Number of neighborhoods 2-3-5-7-10-12
Number of simulation 2-4-6
Beta factor of SA 1.8-1.9-2
T0 factor of SA 500-1000-2000
Maximum iteration of SA 5-10-20

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 Table 3 OA-L18 (36×61)

Trial Spop Nimp Nsim Beta T0 Max it-SA Nneighborhood

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 1 1 2 2 3 3 2
3 1 2 1 3 3 2 3
4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4
5 1 3 2 3 2 1 5
6 1 3 3 2 1 2 6
7 2 1 1 3 2 3 6
8 2 1 3 1 3 2 5
9 2 2 2 2 2 2 1
10 2 2 3 3 1 1 2
11 2 3 1 2 3 1 4
12 2 3 2 1 1 3 3
13 3 1 2 3 1 2 4
14 3 1 3 2 2 1 3
15 3 2 1 2 1 3 5
16 3 2 2 1 3 1 6
17 3 3 1 1 2 2 2
18 3 3 3 3 3 3 1

Table 4 ANOVA for S/N ratio

Factors DF SS MS F Percent X Cumulative P-value
Size of population 2 0.016995 0.008498 2.80369515 6.02 7.08 0.1131
Number of imperialist 2 0.026572 0.013286 4.38337182 11.29 18.37 0.0469
Beta 2 0.025857 0.012928 4.26525899 10.90 29.27 0.0498
Maximum iteration of SA 2 0.084973 0.042487 14.017486 43.44 72.70 0.0017
Error 9 0.027273 0.003031 28.36
Total 17 0.18167 100

42
 Table 5 ANOVA for RPD values
Factors D.F S.S M.S F Percent X Cumulative P-value
Number of neighbor 5 38.7336 7.7467 19.6716607 39.64 39.64 0.0012
Size of population 2 8.6789 4.3395 11.0195531 8.51 48.15 0.0098
Number of simulation 2 3.9594 1.9797 5.02717115 3.42 51.57 0.0522
maximum iteration of SA 2 39.0044 19.5022 49.5231082 41.21 92.78 0.0002
Error 6 2.3624 0.3938 7.22 100
Total 17 92.7387

Table 6 Two-sample T for novel ICA versus standard ICA

Algorithms N Mean StDev SE mean

novel ICA 100 1132 510 51
standard ICA 100 1380 723 72
Difference = mu (novel ICA) - mu (standard ICA)
Estimate for difference = -248.2
99% upper bound for difference= -40.6
T-Value = -2.81
P-Value = 0.003
DF = 177

Table 7 The statistical comparison of the algorithms on the metrics

Cmax_Average Cmax_STDEV
GA ICA PSO GA ICA PSO
1 66.89173 71.13103 71.2479 7.116243 4.800509 3.327409
2 61.50993 58.94557 69.98253 1.694201 2.371662 3.2329
3 444.9244 388.5449 405.2789 12.3732 13.74971 12.14006
4 124.9243 120.5808 126.6094 7.524179 3.826334 6.048054
5 322.7533 315.2179 320.6395 8.439558 6.424258 13.73703
6 224.9619 198.0391 201.3796 7.864661 6.894765 6.821189
7 338.339 326.626 339.5753 17.66715 24.37398 24.87072
8 969.306 890.2231 880.4473 40.91556 9.24027 9.732963
9 861.9969 719.3154 707.7695 32.72085 7.221836 14.44122
10 733.9785 609.1122 622.6678 19.48301 12.71853 14.75514
Sum 4149.586 3697.736 3745.598 155.7986 91.62185 109.1067

43
Table 8 The P-values of the statistical tests

Cmax_Average Cmax_STDEV
P_value 0.934 0.271
Decision Algorithms are almost the same Algorithms are almost the same

44