Re: GAs and TSP-Type Problems

Hi, JJ--
        I suspect Generator can solve it pretty easily.  Can you
represent the problem parameters as a table (or set of tables) in
Excel, and define a function that you want to maximize or minimize?
If so, I'd be glad to run it on Generator for you and see what comes
out.
http://www.nli-ltd.com/products/genetic_algorithms/demos.htm    
Steve

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 22:42:40 -0600, "JJ Lay"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I was wondering if you had much success with your problem as posted almost
>two months ago.  I am in the process of building an application similar. 
>Our organization has a finite territory across two states broken down by
>"county".  We have a set of salesmen living in various counties.  The
>problem we are trying to solve is balancing three factors: (1) territory
>size in square miles, (2) number of customers in each salesman's
>territory, and (3) opportunity in sales based on historical sales.  As you
>can imagine, we want the territory size to be roughly equal for each
>salesman, approximately the same number of customers per salesman, and the
>opportunity per salesman to be the same.  Each county can be assigned to
>one salesman and preference for assignment is given to a salesman living
>in the county.  The problem is complex given the large number of
>customers, a large number of counties and the large number of salesmen.
>
>Thank you for any input.
>JJ Lay
>Six Sigma Black Belt
>Thompson Machinery Commerce Corporation