Title: Modified multi-objective simulated annealing algorithm for scheduling a flow shop production system with setup times

Authors: V. Anjana; M.N. Anish; R. Sridharan

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, Karukutty – 683582, Kerala, India ' Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad – 678008, Kerala, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Calicut – 673601, Kerala, India

Abstract: The presence of setup times and multiple objectives makes the scheduling problem complex. This paper presents two algorithms namely: multi-objective simulated annealing (MOSA) and modified MOSA for the simultaneous minimisation of makespan and mean tardiness in scheduling a flow shop production system wherein setup times depend on processing sequence. The modified MOSA algorithm is developed by hybridising MOSA with variable neighbourhood search. Benchmark problems are used to conduct computational experiments. The analysis of the algorithms reveals that modified MOSA outperforms MOSA for the measures considered. Hybridisation improves the performance of MOSA. The proposed algorithms are applied on scheduling a real-world SDST flow shop and the results indicate superior performance of modified MOSA.

Keywords: flow shop production system; sequence dependent setup time; SDST; multi-objective simulated annealing; MOSA; variable neighbourhood search; VNS; hybridisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPMB.2023.128473

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2023 Vol.13 No.2, pp.177 - 211

Received: 18 Nov 2020
Accepted: 05 Jan 2021
Published online: 24 Jan 2023 *

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