Quantum-inspired optimization offers practical benefits for complex engineering decisions when fully-fledged quantum hardware is unavailable. This study introduces a quantum-inspired framework that combines a probabilistic state representation, rotation-based evolutionary updates, and a simulated annealing acceptance rule to balance global exploration and local refinement on classical hardware. The framework is assessed on synthetic but realistic case studies that emulate high-dimensional energy scheduling and a two-objective logistics design setting. On the single-objective benchmark, the proposed approach attains a substantially lower final cost and faster stabilization than conventional evolutionary baselines. On the two-objective setting, the obtained solutions populate the lower-left region of the cost–time plane, indicating favorable trade-offs. We also discuss scalability and practical deployment on commodity CPUs, and outline a path toward hybridization with emerging quantum accelerators. Validation with small-scale real data from energy scheduling and logistics is in progress and will be reported in a subsequent manuscript. Overall, the results indicate that quantum-inspired operators can provide reliable and computationally efficient decision support across diverse engineering contexts.
Quantum-inspired optimization offers practical benefits for complex engineering decisions when fully-fledged quantum hardware is unavailable. This study introduces a quantum-inspired framework that combines a probabilistic state representation, rotation-based evolutionary updates, and a simulated annealing acceptance rule to balance global exploration and local refinement on classical hardware. The framework is assessed on synthetic but realistic case studies that emulate high-dimensional energy scheduling and a two-objective logistics design setting. On the single-objective benchmark, the proposed approach attains a substantially lower final cost and faster stabilization than conventional evolutionary baselines. On the two-objective setting, the obtained solutions populate the lower-left region of the cost–time plane, indicating favorable trade-offs. We also discuss scalability and practical deployment on commodity CPUs, and outline a path toward hybridization with emerging quantum accelerators. Validation with small-scale real data from energy scheduling and logistics is in progress and will be reported in a subsequent manuscript. Overall, the results indicate that quantum-inspired operators can provide reliable and computationally efficient decision support across diverse engineering contexts.
Industrial engineering increasingly depends on solving large-scale optimization problems involving scheduling, routing, resource allocation, inventory control, energy management, and supply-chain coordination. Classical exact methods often become computationally expensive when problem size, uncertainty, and combinatorial complexity grow rapidly. Although practical quantum computers are still developing, quantum-inspired computing approaches have emerged as powerful alternatives that adapt principles from quantum mechanics to run on classical hardware. This paper investigates quantum-inspired computing approaches for complex optimization problems in industrial engineering. It examines methodologies including simulated annealing, tensor-network optimization, Ising formulations, quantum- inspired evolutionary algorithms, digital annealers, and hybrid classical-intelligent heuristics. Applications in production scheduling, facility layout, vehicle routing, maintenance planning, portfolio optimization, warehouse operations, and smart manufacturing are analyzed. Particular attention is given to solution quality, scalability, stochastic decision-making, real-time adaptability, and integration with Industry 4.0 data systems. Benefits include faster near-optimal solutions, improved operational efficiency, reduced energy consumption, and better responsiveness under uncertainty. Major challenges include formulation difficulty, parameter tuning, benchmarking inconsistency, interpretability, and transition barriers within traditional industrial workflows. A future roadmap is proposed involving hybrid quantum-classical ecosystems, AI- guided optimization engines, digital twins, and autonomous decision platforms. The paper concludes that quantum-inspired computing can deliver practical industrial value today by bridging the gap between conventional optimization and future quantum advantage, especially in environments where speed, flexibility, and complexity management are essential.
Purpose: The development of engineering decision support systems requires effective optimization techniques to deal with complex optimization problems such as energy management, logistics optimization, and resource management. The most popular classical optimization techniques, such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), are often less effective in terms of optimization performance and are often likely to suffer from slow optimization speed and premature convergence to local optima when dealing with highdimensional optimization search space. The quantum-inspired optimization (QIO) techniques are an emerging class of optimization techniques that attempt to mimic some principles of quantum computing on classical computers to overcome the limitations of classical optimization techniques. The purpose of this research is to develop a quantum-inspired optimization framework to overcome the limitations of classical optimization techniques in engineering decision support systems. Method: The proposed optimization framework incorporates a probabilistic amplitude representation of solutions, rotation-based evolutionary optimization, and simulated annealing acceptance criteria. The optimization framework was tested on two optimization scenarios: a highdimensional optimization problem inspired by a Rastrigin-like function representing energy management optimization and a multi-objective optimization problem inspired by logistics optimization with the goal of minimizing transportation costs and time. The optimization performance and effectiveness of the proposed optimization framework were compared with classical optimization techniques such as GA and PSO. Findings: The proposed optimization framework outperforms traditional methods such as GA and PSO in terms of speed and quality of results. In the high-dimensional problem, the proposed framework achieved an optimal value of 38.96, which is better compared to the results of PSO, which achieved 69.42, and GA, which achieved 137.22. In the multi-objective problem, the proposed framework achieved Pareto results, which show better performance and effectiveness compared to the traditional methods. Conclusion: The optimization results indicate that the quantum-inspired optimization framework is an effective optimization tool that can be used to overcome the limitations of classical optimization techniques in engineering decision support systems. The proposed optimization framework provides a link between classical optimization techniques and emerging quantum optimization techniques while being able to run on classical computers.
Quantum computing has emerged as a transformative paradigm, leveraging principles of quantum mechanics to tackle computationally intractable problems. This manuscript explores the potential of quantum computing for solving complex engineering problems—specifically optimization, simulation, and data analysis tasks—using technologies and methodologies available up to 2022. We examine both gate-based and quantum annealing approaches, outline experimental frameworks, and compare performance against classical counterparts. Results from simulated benchmark problems demonstrate promising speedups in select cases, though practical adoption is constrained by hardware limitations such as qubit coherence times and noise. The study concludes by highlighting avenues for integrating hybrid quantum-classical workflows in engineering, along with a discussion of current constraints and future directions. Over the past decade, research efforts have focused on understanding how quantum phenomena like superposition and entanglement can be harnessed to realize computational advantages for specific problem classes. In particular, combinatorial optimization problems—ubiquitous in engineering design and logistics—offer fertile ground for quantum algorithms such as the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) and quantum annealing. Additionally, quantum simulation techniques, including the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE), promise to accelerate the modeling of physical systems at the molecular and materials level, potentially informing the design of next-generation structural and functional materials. Beyond raw algorithmic performance, this paper carefully assesses the end‑to‑end workflow, accounting for overheads in problem encoding, error mitigation, and classical post‑processing. We also present a detailed analysis of resource utilization—quantified by qubit counts, circuit depths, and annealing schedules—highlighting trade‑offs between solution quality and execution time. Ultimately, our findings underscore that, while pure quantum speedups remain rare in 2022, hybrid approaches harnessing both quantum and classical resources can yield practical benefits for small‑to‑medium scale engineering tasks. This expanded evaluation provides a roadmap for researchers and practitioners interested in applying quantum computing to real‑world engineering challenges.
In this work, we study the application of quantum computing to complex engineering simulations and decisions. Using these quantum algorithms like Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE), Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM) and Grover’s Algorithm, we will optimize computational efficiency, accuracy and diversity of solutions in engineering. It was performed with a comparative analysis with classical algorithms based on performance metrics such as accuracy of solution, execution time, and optimality of the decision. Analysis of experimental results showed QAOA produces a 92.3% solution accuracy, higher than that (88.6%) of classical simulated annealing and (85.4%) genetic algorithms. Similarly, VQE achieved 27% reduction in execution time versus the classical equivalent and QSVM achieved 94.1% classification accuracy on engineering pattern recognition tasks. Grover’s Algorithm also resulted in a 3.7x faster search efficiency in decision oriented simulation. Finally, the study shows that quantum inspired models can perform efficiently on large scale and highly complex engineering problems. These findings provide a major leap in realizing the capability to harness quantum technologies for real time, scalable decision making in structural analysis, lifecycle management and intelligent system design. Such results make way for future developments of hybrid quantum classical computing frameworks that could be deployed in industry.
E-commerce platforms face ever more complex dimensional SKU portfolios, demand volatility, returns, seasonality and cost pressures. Traditional optimization approaches (integer programming, heuristics, meta-heuristics) increasingly strain under scale, real-time demands and combinatorial explosion. Meanwhile, quantum-inspired optimization leveraging methods such as quantum annealing, coherent Ising machines, variational circuits and QUBO (Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization) mapping offer near-term practical approaches to combinatorial logistics and inventory problems. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for applying quantum-inspired optimization to e-commerce supply-chain logistics and inventory management: we provide an extended literature review of classical and quantum-inspired methods; we derive full mathematical formulations for logistics/inventory problems and map them into QUBO/quantum-inspired frameworks; we design a benchmarking/implementation methodology; we discuss industry architecture and deployment issues (data pipelines, latency, hybrid classical/quantum-inspired workflows, interpretability, cost benefit); we present use cases and discuss practical adoption in ecommerce. Our findings suggest that while fully fault-tolerant quantum computing remains some years away, quantum-inspired optimization can deliver meaningful improvements in logistics and inventory decisions today, particularly for large-SKU e-commerce, multi-warehouse networks and time-sensitive delivery.
Large-scale optimization (LSO) problems—those with hundreds to thousands of decision variables—are prevalent in engineering design, logistics, telecommunications, and machine learning hyperparameter search. Classical evolutionary algorithms often struggle in this regime due to premature convergence and prohibitive search costs. This manuscript presents a Quantum-Inspired Genetic Algorithm (QIGA) that transfers three ideas from quantum computation into a purely classical algorithm: (i) Q-bit angle encoding that maintains a compact, uncertainty-aware distribution over decision values, (ii) rotation-gate adaptation that updates search probabilities toward promising regions while preserving exploration, and (iii) quantum observation that draws diverse candidate solutions from the encoded amplitudes at each generation. We further couple the core QIGA with (a) an island-model decomposition for ultra-high dimensionality, (b) surrogate-assisted local refinement for exploitation at low cost, and (c) a feasibility-aware penalty for constraints. We evaluate the approach on five canonical continuous benchmarks in 1,000 dimensions (Sphere, Rosenbrock, Rastrigin, Ackley, Griewank) under a fixed computational budget. Across 30 independent runs per function, QIGA achieves lower final objective values and higher success rates than classical GA, PSO, and DE baselines. A non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicates statistically significant improvements for QIGA (adjusted p < 0.01) on all functions. We analyze the algorithm’s scaling behavior, the role of angle-space step control, and the contribution of island-level diversity. The results suggest that quantum-inspired probability evolution provides a robust inductive bias for LSO by decoupling representation capacity from point estimates and by enabling distribution-aware search moves. We conclude with practical guidelines for tuning and discuss extensions to constrained and mixed-variable problems.