We consider the problem of makespan minimization on a flexible flow shop with k stages and m s machines at any stage. We propose a heuristic algorithm based on the identification and exploitation of the bottleneck stage, which is simple to use and to understand by practitioners. A computational experiment is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The study shows that our method is, in average, comparable with other bottleneck-based algorithms, but with smaller variance, and that it requires less computational effort.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.