BFO: a hybrid bees algorithm for the multi-level capacitated lot-sizing problem

This paper presents a hybrid heuristic based on the bees algorithm combined with the fix-and-optimize heuristic to solve the multi-level capacitated lot-sizing problem. The bees algorithm can be used as a new method to determine the sequence in which to apply the partition in the fix-and-optimize approach. This new manner of choosing the partition adds diversity to the solution pool and yields different local optima solutions after some iterations. The bees-and-fix-and-optimize (BFO) algorithm attempts to avoid these local optima by performing random search in accordance with the concept of bees algorithm. The BFO has yielded good results for instances from the literature and, in most cases, the results are superior to the best results provided by approaches presented in recent literature. They show that this construction concept is advantageous and illustrate the efficiency of hybrid methods composed of matheuristics and metaheuristics. Furthermore, the BFO approach is a general-purpose heuristic that can be applied to solve other types of production planning problems.