An interactive Bi-criteria heuristic algorithm for the coherent system assembly

This paper presents a heuristic algorithm allocating non-repairable components to the nodes of a coherent system resulting in higher reliability at a lower cost. Component reliabilities are considered independent of their assigned nodes and can be allocated to any node in the system. The algorithm ranks the nodes according to their critical importance, allocates the component with the higher reliability to that of the higher ranking node and; generates efficient solutions using the largest cost-profit trade-off. The decision maker has the option to interact with the algorithm during the solution process to articulate his/her preference regarding the best compromised solution. He/she may also choose to submit a minimum acceptable stance of the reliability-cost trade-off that can be used as a stopping criterion for the algorithm. Several numerical examples are illustrated to exemplify the main concepts of the algorithm and how it is used. Experimental studies are carried out.