EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS FOR RESOURCE CONSTRAINED NON-SERIAL MIXED FLOW SHOPS

Abstract

In this paper the resource-constrained flow shop (RCF) problem is addressed. A number of realistic extensions are incorporated, including non-serial precedence requirements, mixed flow shop situations, and the distribution of the human workforce among a number of pre-determined groups. The RCF is then solved by meta-heuristics, primarily of the evolutionary type. An extensive numerical investigation, including a case study of a particular industrial situation, details the implementation and execution of the heuristics, and the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.