Pruned Pareto-optimal sets for the system redundancy allocation problem based on multiple prioritized objectives

Multi-objective problems are often solved by modifying them into equivalent single objective problems using pre-defined weights or utility functions. Then, a multi-objective problem is solved similar to a single objective problem returning a single solution. These methods can be problematic because assigning appropriate numerical values (i.e., weights) to an objective function can be challenging for many practitioners. On the other hand, methods such as genetic algorithms and tabu search often yield numerous non-dominated Pareto optimal solutions, which makes the selection of one single best solution very difficult. In this paper, a new methodology is presented to solve different versions of multi-objective system redundancy allocation problems. A tabu search meta-heuristic approach is used to initially find the entire Pareto-optimal front, and then a Monte-Carlo simulation provides a decision maker with a pruned and prioritized set of Pareto-optimal solutions based user-defined objective function preferences. The purpose of this study is to create a bridge between Pareto optimality and single solution approaches.