A simulated annealing with multiple‐search paths and parallel computation for a comprehensive flowshop scheduling problem

Recent studies have demonstrated that the performance of a simulated annealing algorithm can be improved by following multiple‐search paths and parallel computation. In this paper, we use these strategies to solve a comprehensive mathematical model for a flexible flowshop lot streaming problem. In the flexible flowshop environment, a number of jobs will be processed in several consecutive production stages, and each stage may involve a certain number of parallel machines that may not be identical. Each job has to be split into several unequal sublots by following the concept of lot streaming. The sublots are to be processed in the order of the stages, and sublots of certain products may skip some stages. This complex problem also incorporates sequence‐dependent setup times, the anticipatory or nonanticipatory nature of setups, release dates for machines, and machine eligibility. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of lot streaming in hybrid flowshops, the performance of the proposed simulated annealing algorithm, and the improvements achieved using parallel computation.     

A hybrid flowshop scheduling model considering dedicated machines and lot-splitting for the solar cell industry

This paper studies a solar cell industry scheduling problem, which is similar to traditional hybrid flowshop scheduling (HFS). In a typical HFS problem, the allocation of machine resources for each order should be scheduled in advance. However, the challenge in solar cell manufacturing is the number of machines that can be adjusted dynamically to complete the job. An optimal production scheduling model is developed to explore these issues, considering the practical characteristics, such as hybrid flowshop, parallel machine system, dedicated machines, sequence independent job setup times and sequence dependent job setup times. The objective of this model is to minimise the makespan and to decide the processing sequence of the orders/lots in each stage, lot-splitting decisions for the orders and the number of machines used to satisfy the demands in each stage. From the experimental results, lot-splitting has significant effect on shortening the makespan, and the improvement effect is influenced by the processing time and the setup time of orders. Therefore, the threshold point to improve the makespan can be identified. In addition, the model also indicates that more lot-splitting approaches, that is, the flexibility of allocating orders/lots to machines is larger, will result in a better scheduling performance.     

An agent-based genetic algorithm for hybrid flowshops with sequence dependent setup times to minimise makespan

This paper deals with a variant of flowshop scheduling, namely, the hybrid or flexible flowshop with sequence dependent setup times. This type of flowshop is frequently used in the batch production industry and helps reduce the gap between research and operational use. This scheduling problem is NP-hard and solutions for large problems are based on non-exact methods. An improved genetic algorithm (GA) based on software agent design to minimise the makespan is presented. The paper proposes using an inherent characteristic of software agents to create a new perspective in GA design. To verify the developed metaheuristic, computational experiments are conducted on a well-known benchmark problem dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed metaheuristic outperforms some of the well-known methods and the state-of-art algorithms on the same benchmark problem dataset.     

Bi-objective scheduling for reentrant hybrid flow shop using Pareto genetic algorithm

This paper deals with a scheduling problem for reentrant hybrid flowshop with serial stages where each stage consists of identical parallel machines. In a reentrant flowshop, a job may revisit any stage several times. Local-search based Pareto genetic algorithms with Minkowski distance-based crossover operator is proposed to approximate the Pareto optimal solutions for the minimization of makespan and total tardiness in a reentrant hybrid flowshop. The Pareto genetic algorithms are compared with existing multi-objective genetic algorithm, NSGA-II in terms of the convergence to optimal solution, the diversity of solution and the dominance of solution. Experimental results show that the proposed crossover operator and local search are effective and the proposed algorithm outperforms NSGA-II by statistical analysis.     

Modeling realistic hybrid flexible flowshop scheduling problems

This paper aims to contribute to the recent research efforts to bridge the gap between the theory and the practice of scheduling by modelizing a realistic manufacturing environment and analyzing the effect of the inclusion of several characteristics in the problem formulation. There are several constraints and characteristics that affect the scheduling operations at companies. While these constraints are many times tackled in the literature, they are seldom considered together inside the same problem formulation. We propose a formulation along with a mixed integer modelization and some heuristics for the problem of scheduling n jobs on m stages where at each stage we have a known number of unrelated machines. The jobs might skip stages and, therefore, we have what we call a hybrid flexible flowshop problem. We also consider per machine sequence-dependent setup times which can be anticipatory and non-anticipatory along with machine lags, release dates for machines, machine eligibility and precedence relationships among jobs. Manufacturing environments like this appear in sectors like food processing, ceramic tile manufacturing and several others. The optimization criterion considered is the minimization of the makespan. The MIP model and the heuristics proposed are tested against a comprehensive benchmark and the results evaluated by advanced statistical tools that make use of decision trees and experimental designs. The results allow us to identify the constraints that increase the difficulty.     

Scheduling and Lot Streaming in Flowshops with No-Wait in Process

Lot streaming involves splitting a production lot into a number of sublots, in order to allow the overlapping of successive operations, in multi-machine manufacturing systems. In no-wait flowshop scheduling, sublots are necessarily consistent, that is, they remain the same over all machines. The benefits of lot streaming include reductions in lead times and work-in-process, and increases in machine utilization rates. We study the problem of minimizing the makespan in no-wait flowshops producing multiple products with attached setup times, using lot streaming. Our study of the single product problem resolves an open question from the lot streaming literature. The intractable multiple product problem requires finding the optimal number of sublots, sublot sizes, and a product sequence for each machine. We develop a dynamic programming algorithm to generate all the nondominated schedule profiles for each product that are required to formulate the flowshop problem as a generalized traveling salesman problem. This problem is equivalent to a classical traveling salesman problem with a pseudopolynomial number of cities. We develop and computationally test an efficient heuristic for this problem. Our results indicate that solutions can quickly be found for flowshops with up to 10 machines and 50 products. Moreover, the solutions found by our heuristic provide a substantial improvement over previously published results.     

Two-stage hybrid batching flowshop scheduling with blocking and machine availability constraints using genetic algorithm

This research investigates a two-stage hybrid flowshop scheduling problem in a metal-working company. The first stage consists of multiple parallel machines and the second stage has only one machine. Four characteristics of the company have substantiated the complexity of the problem. First, all machines in stage one are able to process multiple jobs simultaneously but the jobs must be sequentially set up one after another. Second, the setup time of each job is separated from its processing time and depends upon its preceding job. Third, a blocking environment exists between two stages with no intermediate buffer storage. Finally, machines are not continuously available due to the preventive maintenance and machine breakdown. Two types of machine unavailability, namely, deterministic case and stochastic case, are identified in this problem. The former occurs on stage-two machine with the start time and the end time known in advance. The latter occurs on one of the parallel machine in stage one and a real-time rescheduling will be triggered. Minimizing the makespan is considered as the objective to develop the optimal scheduling algorithm. A genetic algorithm is used to obtain a near-optimal solution. The computational results with actual data are favorable and superior over the results from existing manual schedules.     

A new heuristic for scheduling the two-stage flowshop with additional resources

This paper deals with the problem of preemptive scheduling in a two-stage flowshop with parallel unrelated machines at the first stage and a single machine at the second stage. At the first stage, jobs use some additional resources which are available in limited quantities at any time. The resource requirements are of 0–1 type. The objective is the minimization of makespan. The problem is NP-hard. Heuristic algorithms are proposed which solve to optimality the resource constrained scheduling problem at the first stage of the flowshop, and at the same time, minimize the makespan in the flowshop by selecting appropriate jobs for simultaneous processing. Several rules of job selection are considered. The performance of the proposed heuristic algorithms is analyzed by comparing solutions with the lower bound on the optimal makespan. The extensive computational experiment shows that the proposed heuristic algorithms are able to produce near-optimal solutions in short computational time.     

A two-stage hybrid flowshop scheduling problem in machine breakdown condition

This paper considers a two-stage hybrid flowshop scheduling problem in machine breakdown condition. By machine breakdown condition we mean that the machine may not always be available during the scheduling period. Machine failure may occur with a known probability after completing a job. Probability of machine failure depends on the previous processed job. The problem to be studied has one machine at the first stage and M parallel identical machines at the second stage. The objective is to find the optimal job combinations and the optimal job schedule such that the makespan is minimized. The proposed problem is compatible with a large scope of real world situations. To solve the problem, first, we introduce one optimal approach for job precedence when there is one machine in both stages and then provide a heuristic algorithm when there are M machines in stage two. To examine the performance of the heuristic, some experiments used are provided as well.     

Hybrid flowshop scheduling with sequence‐dependent setup times by hybridizing max–min ant system,simulated annealing and variable neighbourhood search

This paper deals with the hybrid flowshop scheduling problems with sequence‐dependent setup times. To minimize the makespan, we propose hybrid metaheuristic approach, which integrates several features from ant colony optimization, simulated annealing and variable neighbourhood search in a new configurable scheduling algorithm. Our proposed algorithms are tuned by means of design of experiments approach. We present computational experiments on standard test problems and compare the results with the several algorithms presented previously. The results illustrate that the hybrid metaheuristic outperforms the other algorithms.