Multi-objective two-stage multiprocessor flow shop scheduling – a subgroup particle swarm optimisation approach

Flow shop production system – compared to other economically important production systems – is popular in real manufacturing environments. This study focuses on the flow shop with multiprocessor scheduling problem (FSMP), and develops an improved particle swarm optimisation heuristic to solve it. Additionally, this study designs an integer programming model to perform effectiveness and robustness testing on the proposed heuristic. Experimental results demonstrate a 10% to 50% improvement in the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic in small-scale problem tests, and a 10% to 40% improvement in the robustness of the heuristic in large-scale problem tests, indicating extremely satisfactory performance.