A Tabu Search Approach for Designing Shopping Centers
- Citation:
- Fahmy, S. A., B. A. Alablani, and T. F. Abdelmaguid, "A Tabu Search Approach for Designing Shopping Centers", 2017 9th IEEE-GCC Conference and Exhibition (GCCCE), Manama, Bahrain, 11 May, 2017.
Date Presented:
11 MayAbstract:
The assignment of stores in shopping centers is a challenging task due to conflicting factors related to the accessibility of store locations and the power of attraction of the competing brands. In a previous work, the Authors proposed an evenhanded approach of assigning stores to empty locations in shopping centers, aiming to balance the distribution of flow across all shopping center areas (blocks). A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model was devised targeting the minimization of the differences of flows between blocks. Because of the complexity and the relatively large size of the problem in real life, a solution algorithm based on tabu search (TS) is proposed in this sequel paper to provide efficient solutions. TS features such as tabu list, tabu tenure, aspiration criteria, short and long-term memory, and diversification are developed to improve the search process. The proposed TS algorithm is tested on a number of generated instances in a numerical study. Results prove the efficiency of the algorithm in solving large size instances for which exact methods cannot obtain feasible solutions in reasonable time.