Title: Solving tri-objective multistage hybrid flow shop scheduling problems using a discrete firefly algorithm

Authors: M.K. Marichelvam; M. Geetha

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, 626005, India ' Department of Mathematics, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, Virudhunagar 626001, Tamilnadu, 626001, India

Abstract: Hybrid flow shop (HFS) scheduling problems turn into a fascinating area of research for the past several decades. However, most of the researchers consider only single objective and makespan is the most vital objective function. The real industrial scheduling problems involve multiple conflicting objectives. The HFS scheduling problems were proved to be NP-hard (non-deterministic polynomial time hard) problems. In this paper, we present a discrete firefly algorithm (DFA) to minimise the makespan, total flow time and machine idle time in a multistage HFS environment consisting of n jobs and k stages with identical parallel machines. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested with a real industrial case study data and random problem instances. Computational results proved the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: flow shop scheduling; hybrid flow shops; multistage HFS; NP-hard; discrete firefly algorithm; DFA; makespan; total flow time; machine idle time; multi-objective scheduling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIEI.2014.067190

International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics, 2014 Vol.2 No.4, pp.284 - 303

Received: 04 Oct 2013
Accepted: 28 Sep 2014
Published online: 07 Feb 2015 *

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