Multi-objective simulated annealing algorithm for partner selection in virtual enterprises

Abstract

Virtual Enterprise (VE) is a temporary alliance of autonomous enterprises formed to act together to share skills or core competencies and resources in order to respond to a market opportunity. The success of VE strongly depends on its composition, so partner selection can be considered as the most important problem in VE. This paper presents and solves a model for the partner selection problem in VEs that considers two main evaluation criteria; project completion time and total cost. To do so, the paper uses a multi-objective algorithm, namely Pareto Simulated Annealing (PSA). Results showed improved performance of PSA compared to the Tabu Search algorithm used in a recent study.