Title: A hybrid genetic algorithm for a complex cost function for flowshop scheduling problem

Authors: Debraj Bhowmick; P. Maniyan; Anjali Saxena; Yves Ducq

Addresses: National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Vihar Lake, Mumbai 400087, India. ' National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Vihar Lake, Mumbai 400087, India. ' Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), IIFT Bhawan, B-21, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi 110016, India. ' University of Bordeaux, IMS UMR 5218 CNRS, 351 Cours de la Libération, 33405 Talence Cedex, France

Abstract: Supply chain excellence has a real impact on business strategy. Manufacturing is an integral part of this strategy represents one of the most exciting opportunities to create value and one of the most challenging tasks for the policy makers. In this paper, we consider a performance criterion for the flowshop scheduling problem that aims to minimise a complex cost function, i.e., the sum of weighted tardiness and weighted flow-time costs. A heuristic and hybrid genetic algorithms are proposed and experimental results are provided. We address this trade-off and propose solution techniques that are easy for the shop-floor manager to implement. As scheduling function is an integral part of supply chain, the proposed solution minimises the opportunity losses and improves cost based supply chain performance. This paper addresses this interesting and challenging domain.

Keywords: flowshop scheduling; hybrid genetic algorithms; complex objectives; heuristics; manufacturing industry; weighted tardiness; weighted flow time costs; supply chain performance; supply chain management; SCM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJET.2011.043116

International Journal of Electronic Transport, 2011 Vol.1 No.1, pp.64 - 75

Received: 21 Mar 2011
Accepted: 30 Apr 2011
Published online: 11 Jan 2015 *