Title: Performance evaluation of hybrid-CLP vs. GA: non-permutation flowshop with constrained resequencing buffers

Authors: Gerrit Farber, Anna M. Coves Moreno, Said Salhi

Addresses: Institut d'Organitzacio i Control de Sistemes Industrials, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. ' Institut d'Organitzacio i Control de Sistemes Industrials, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. ' The Center for Heuristic Optimisation, Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7PE, UK

Abstract: This paper is located in the area of mixed model non-permutation flowshop production lines where jobs of more than one model are being processed on the same production line in an arbitrary sequence. Nevertheless, the majority of publications in this area are limited to solutions which determine the job sequence before the jobs enters the line and maintains it without interchanging jobs until the end of the production line, which is known as permutation flowshop. The present work considers a non-permutation flowshop. Resequencing is permitted where stations have access to intermediate or centralised resequencing buffers. The access to the buffers is restricted by the number of available buffer places and the physical size of the products. The primary objective is the minimisation of the make span, but also setup-cost and setup-time is contemplated. A hybrid approach, using constraint logic programming (CLP), is presented and compared to a genetic algorithm (GA). These solution methods are conceptually different and recommendations for their applicability are presented.

Keywords: constraint logic programming; CLP; hybrid approach; genetic algorithms; GAs; performance evaluation; non-permutation flow shops; mixed model assembly lines; constrained resequencing buffers; job sequences; sequencing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2010.032900

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.20 No.1/2/3/4, pp.242 - 258

Published online: 05 May 2010 *

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