Minimising Total Flowtime in a No-Wait Flow Shop (NWFS) using Genetic Algorithms

This paper considers a no-wait flow shop scheduling (NWFS) problem, where the objective is to minimise the total flowtime. We propose a genetic algorithm (GA) that is implemented in a spreadsheet environment. The GA functions as an add-in in the spreadsheet. It is demonstrated that with proposed app...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Imran Ali Chaudhry, Isam AbdulQader Elbadawi, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Tajammal Chughtai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2018-09-01
Series:Ingeniería e Investigación
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/ingeinv/article/view/75281
Description
Summary:This paper considers a no-wait flow shop scheduling (NWFS) problem, where the objective is to minimise the total flowtime. We propose a genetic algorithm (GA) that is implemented in a spreadsheet environment. The GA functions as an add-in in the spreadsheet. It is demonstrated that with proposed approach any criteria can be optimised without modifying the GA routine or spreadsheet model. Furthermore, the proposed method for solving this class of problem is general purpose, as it can be easily customised by adding or removing jobs and machines. Several benchmark problems already published in the literature are used to demonstrate the problem-solving capability of the proposed approach. Benchmark problems set ranges from small (7-jobs, 7 machines) to large (100-jobs, 10-machines). The performance of the GA is compared with different meta-heuristic techniques used in earlier literature. Experimental analysis demonstrate that solutions obtained in this research offer equal quality as compared to algorithms already developed for NWFS problems.
ISSN:0120-5609
2248-8723