MULTI-ITEM SHELF-SPACE ALLOCATION OF BREAKABLE ITEMS VIA GENETIC ALGORITHM

A general methodology is suggested to solve shelf-space allocation problem of retailers. A multi-item inventory model of breakable items is developed, where items are either complementary or substitute. Demands of the items depend on the amount of stock on the showroom and unit price of the respective items. Also demand of one item decreases (increases) due to the presence of others in case of substitute (complementary) product. For such a model, a Contractive Mapping Genetic Algorithm (CMGA) has been developed and implemented to find the values of different decision variables. These are evaluated to have maximum possible profit out of the proposed system. The system has been illustrated numerically and results for some particular cases are derived. The results are compared with some other heuristic approaches- Simulated Annealing (SA), simple Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Greedy Search Approach (GSA) developed for the present model.