Title: Multiple rules decision-based DE solution for the earliness-tardiness case of hybrid flow-shop scheduling problem

Authors: Zhonghua Han; Haibo Shi; Feng Qiao; Lei Yue

Addresses: Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenyang, Nanta Street 114#, Shenyang, 110016, China; Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China; Faculty of Information and Control Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, 110168, China. ' Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenyang, Nanta Street 114#, Shenyang, 110016, China. ' Faculty of Information and Control Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, Shenyang, 110168, China. ' ChinaSoft International Co., Ltd., North Wing 12/F, Raycom Infotech Park Tower C, No.2 Kexueyuan Nanlu Haidian District, Beijing 100190, China

Abstract: The earliness/tardiness (E/T) case of hybrid flow-shop scheduling problem (HFSP) is an NP hard problem, which is difficult to deal with; however, the existence of the multi-rules relating to the practical production increases the complexity of this problem. How to solve the combinatorial optimisation problem effectively and optimally is still an open issue today. In this paper, the joint scheduling strategy of differential evolution (DE) algorithm and factor space-based multiple rules decision method is used to solve this E/T scheduling problem. Firstly, DE algorithm is used to make global assignment and obtain each job's process route. Secondly, factor space method is used to describe the scheduling rules in production process; then a scheduling decision method based on variable weight comprehensive function is considered to figure out the jobs' operating priority in buffer area during the local production assignment between stages; subsequently the starting time of each job can be determined. Finally, under the constraints of the due-date and multiple production rules, the global optimisation with the minimal penalty sum of E/T is obtained. Several scheme comparisons with experiment results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: hybrid flow shops; flow shop scheduling; HFSP; differential evolution; jus-in-time; JIT; earliness-tardiness scheduling; factor space; knowledge representation; due dates; multiple production rules; global optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2012.047118

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2012 Vol.16 No.2, pp.97 - 107

Published online: 17 Dec 2014 *

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