A BIONOMIC APPROACH TO THE CAPACITATED P-MEDIAN PROBLEM

This paper advocates the use of the bionomic algorithm, a recently pro posed metaheuristic technique, as an effective method to solve capacit ated p-median problems (CPMP). Bionomic algorithms already proved to b e an effective framework for finding good solutions to combinatorial o ptimization problems, when good local optimization algorithms are avai lable. The paper also presents an effective local search technique for the CPMP. Computational results show the effectiveness of the propose d approach, when compared to the best performing heuristics so far pre sented in the literature.