Optimal Operation Sequence of Hole-Making with Multiple Tools in Manufacturing: A PSO Evolutionary Based Approach

Abstract

This paper studies the optimization of hole-making operations with multiple tools in which a hole may require various tools to its final size. The objective of this problem is to minimize the summation of tool airtime and tool switch time for the hole-making operations. As known, the problem is NP-hard. In this paper, we show a property that any infeasible permutation of hole-making operations can be transformed into a feasible one. Based upon this property, we apply a PSO based approach for solving a benchmark hole-making problem with the number of feasible operation sequences up to 5.41031. Numerical results indicate that the applied PSO approach can find superior solutions for the benchmark problem in the literature.