The Net Optimization Problem - A Heuristic Approach

For every operation hospitals need surgical instruments. These instruments are usually grouped together in a special net. In a hospital there are different types of these nets, each net type has a different composition. The optimization of the net compositions and the inventory level of each net type is called the Net Optimization Problem (NOP). This paper will use a heuristic approach for the NOP. The heuristic will use an iterative process of making new net types, assigning net types to operations, calculating the costs and comparing the cost to the previous solution. To check the performance of the heuristic, the solution was compared to the solution of Glorie(2008)