A Tabu search with multiple neighborhoods for an integrated operation optimization in electronic industry

This paper focuses on an operation optimization problem for a class of multi-head surface mounting machines in printed circuit board assembly lines. The problem involves multiple interrelated sub-problems or decisions: assigning nozzle types as well as components to heads, assigning feeders to slots and determining the pick-up and the placement sequences of components. According to the depth of making decisions, the sub-problems are first classified into two layers. Based on the classification, a novel two-stage problem solving frame is proposed. In the first stage, a constructive heuristic is developed to determine the set of nozzle types assigned to each head and the total number of assembly cycles; in the second stage, constructive heuristics, a Tabu search with multiple neighborhoods operators are combined to solve all the sub-problems simultaneously on the constraints that the results obtained in the first stage should be satisfied. Computational experiments show that the hybrid Tabu search (TS) can provide satisfied results in short length of running time for practical instances.