Obtaining an optimal process plan according to all alternative manufacturing resources has become very important task in flexible process planning problem research. In this paper, we use a novel nature-inspired algorithm called Ant Lion Optimizer (ALO) to solve this NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem. The network representation is adopted to describe flexibilities in process planning an...

Reform of the health care system is a complex process. Opinions vary as to the need for reform and the specific policy changes to be implemented. The Clinton administration has presented a proposal for health care policy reform, but alternative proposals have been recommended. A review of the legislative process indicates the many opportunities to amend or "kill" proposed health reform legislat...

it is now more than four decades from providing and execution of iran’s first comprehensive urban plan. evaluation of this plan shows that the process of execution has not been successful. considering the literature review, field study as well as comparing the plan’s documents, it is thought that lack of coordination between the urban planning organizations, the manner of providing and executio...

The process of cooperative problem solving can be divided into four stages. First, nding potential team members, then forming a team followed by constructing a plan for that team. Finally, the plan is executed by the team. Traditionally, very simple protocols like the Contract Net protocol are used for performing the rst two stages of the process. And often the team is already taken for granted...

The process of cooperative problem solving can be divided into four stages. First, finding potential team members, then forming a team followed by constructing a plan for that team. Finally, the plan is executed by the team. Traditionally, very simple protocols like the Contract Net protocol are used for performing the first two stages of the process. In an open environment however, there can b...

The manufacturing industry faces many challenges such as reducing time-to-market and cutting costs. In order to meet these increasing demands, effective methods are need to support the early product development stages by bridging the gap of communicating early design ideas and the evaluation of manufacturing performance. This paper introduces methods of linking design and manufacturing domains ...

In this paper we present a method for making strategic decisions in New Product Development (NPD) projects based on risks. In NPD the complexity of the process depends both on the nature of the design problem and the difficulties associated with managing the project (activities, risks). To design a complex product several different teams, having different competencies, work on the project. Not ...

In this paper, we expand the scope of constraint-directed scheduling techniques to deal with the case where the scheduling problem includes alternative activities. That is, not only does the scheduling problem consist of determining when an activity is to execute, but also determining which set of alternative activities is to execute at all. Such problems encompass both alternative resource pro...