Solving Flow Shop Scheduling Problems with Blocking by using Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

Flow shop scheduling problems have been analyzed worldwide due to their various applications in industry. In this article, a new genetic algorithm (NGA) is developed to obtain the optimum schedule for the minimization of total completion time of n-jobs in an m-machine flow shop operating without buffers. The working process of the present algorithm is very efficient to implement and effective to find the best results. To implement the proposed algorithm more effectively, similar job order crossover operators and inversion mutation operators have been used. Numerous examples are illustrated to explain proposed approach. Finally, the computational results indicate that present NGA performs much superior to the heuristics for blocking flow shop developed in the literature.