I want to show how you can optimize a conveyor system with a combination of mathematical modeling and discrete-event simulation (DES). This is an addition to the rich variety of conveyor optimization examples available in industry. However, as I will…
Following the previous articles on interfaces (+) and (exact) solvers (+) for optimization in Python, in this article, I introduce some packages that provide an easy-to-use “interface” for artificially intelligent algorithms (AIAs) (e.g., heuristics, meta-heuristics, math-heuristics, learn-heuristics, hyper-heuristics, or sim-heuristics).…
In previous articles, I modeled and solved a single machine scheduling problem. What if we have two resources that operate in a pre-determined sequence (but not in parallel) to process a set of similar jobs? The so-called “flow shop” scheduling…
There are many use cases of operations research (OR) where the decision problem is finding an optimal sequence over time. For instance, we may be interested in allocating a resource (e.g., a machine, a human, a facility, a plane, a…
Following the previous article on modeling and solving an optimization problem in Python using several “interfaces” (+), in this article, I try to provide a comprehensive review of open-source (OS), free, free & open-source (FOSS), and commercial “solvers,” which are…