Methodology

Genetic algorithms have been successfully applied in engineering applications, such as the design of gas pipelines (Goldberg 1983) and telephone networks (Davis et al., 1993). They have also been successfully applied in the natural sciences, as illustrated by Unger and Moults work applying genetic algorithms to solve the protein folding problem (Unger and Moult 1993). Applications in business, however, have been relatively few (Nissen 1995) and limited to small prototypes or standard benchmark problems (Beasley 1990). Although benchmark problems provide a simplified means of comparing different optimization methods with one another, they are not very representative of industrial applications.