A tabu search algorithm for solving economic lot scheduling problem

The economic lot scheduling problem has driven considerable amount of research. The problem is NP-hard and recent research is focused on finding heuristic solutions rather than searching for optimal solutions. This paper introduces a heuristic method using a tabu search algorithm to solve the economic lot scheduling problem. Diversification and intensification schemes are employed to improve the efficiency of the proposed tabu search algorithm. Experimental design is conducted to determine the best operating parameters for the tabu search. Results show that the tabu search algorithm proposed in this paper outperforms two well known benchmark algorithms.