Using Genetic Algorithm to Find the Optimal Shopping Policy for 1-out-of-n Active-Redundancy Series Systems under Budget Constraint

The mathematical model to find the optimal shopping policy from many available manufacturers for 1-out-of-n active redundancy series systems under budget constraint was formulated and tested using GA. The study showed that the number of possible combinations for this problem can be very high and the majority of those combinations are infeasible. This renders the enumeration technique ineffective or even impossible in practice, the matter that calls for a solution through GA. The results showed that the proposed genetic algorithm has high degree of robustness. Moreover, the results showed that the proposed algorithm is superior to the enumeration technique in terms of both computational time and quality of solution. Furthermore, the results showed that the convergence of the algorithm to the optimal solution is high.