Imperialist competitive algorithm for assembly sequence planning

Automated generation of all feasible assembly sequences for a given product is highly desirable in manufacturing industry. Many research studies in the past decades described efforts to find more efficient algorithms for assembly sequence planning. Imperialist competitive algorithm for assembly sequence planning is presented in this paper. Population individuals called countries are in two types: colonies and imperialists that all together form some empires. Each assembly sequence is encoded into the country. The proposed algorithm is tested and compared with genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization. Results show that imperialist competitive algorithm can improve the quality in solution searching and upgrade the opportunity to find optimal or near-optimal solution for assembly sequence planning.