Comparative study of whale optimization algorithm and flower pollination algorithm to solve workers assignment problem

Abstract

Many important problems in engineering management can be formulated as Resource Assignment Problem (RAP). The Workers Assignment Problem (WAP) is considered as a sub-class of RAP which aims to find an optimal assignment of workers to a number of tasks in order to optimize certain objectives. WAP is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem. Due to its importance, several algorithms have been developed to solve it. In this paper, it is considered that a manager is required to provide a training course to his workers in order to improve their level of skill or experience to have a sustainable competitive advantage in the industry. The training cost of each worker to perform a particular job is different. The WAP is to find the best assignment of workers to training courses such that the total training cost is minimized. Two metaheuristic optimizations named Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) and Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA) are utilized to final the optimal solution that reduces the total cost. MATLAB Software is used to perform the simulation of the two proposed methods into WAP. The computational results for a set of randomly generated problems of various sizes show that the FPA is able to find good quality solutions.