Genetic algorithm for collaboration cost optimization-oriented partner selection in virtual enterprises

Abstract

Partner selection is a key step to organize a well-designed virtual enterprise in which collaboration cost between partners is considered to be one of the most important performance indicators that influence the run-time efficiency of virtual enterprise. However, in current solutions there is usually a lack of precise and comprehensive considerations on the collaborations, which makes the selection results not optimal enough. The paper elaborately analyses various collaboration patterns between distributed partners with the corresponding evaluation metrics for collaboration time and cost. A genetic algorithm solution for collaboration cost optimization-oriented partner selection is then developed. The performance of this algorithm is demonstrated by a case, and the results of this trial demonstrate the real life capability of the algorithm.

Keywords:

• Virtual enterprise
• Partner selection
• Collaboration pattern
• Collaboration cost
• Genetic algorithm

Acknowledgement

Research work was fully supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60673025) and by the National High-Tech Research and Development Plan of China (Grant Nos 2006AA01Z167 and 2006AA04Z165).