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In this paper, teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) is proposed to solve flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP) based on the integrated approach with an objective to minimize makespan. An FJSP is an extension of basic jobshop scheduling problem. There are two sub problems in FJSP. They are routing problem and sequencing problem. If both the sub problems are solved simultaneously, then the FJSP comes under integrated approach. Otherwise, it becomes a hierarchical approach. Very less research has been done in the past on FJSP problem as it is an NP-hard (non-deterministic polynomial time hard) problem and very difficult to solve till date. Further, very less focus has been given to solve the FJSP using an integrated approach. So an attempt has been made to solve FJSP based on integrated approach using TLBO. Teaching-learning-based optimization is a meta-heuristic algorithm which does not have any algorithm-specific parameters that are to be tuned in comparison to other meta-heuristics. Therefore, it can be considered as an efficient algorithm. As best student of the class is considered as teacher, after few iterations all the students learn and reach the same knowledge level, due to which there is a loss in diversity in the population. So, like many meta-heuristics, TLBO also has a tendency to get trapped at the local optimum. To avoid this limitation, a new local search technique followed by a mutation strategy (from genetic algorithm) is incorporated to TLBO to improve the quality of the solution and to maintain diversity, respectively, in the population. Tests have been carried out on all Kacem's instances and Brandimarte's data instances to calculate makespan. Results show that TLBO outperformed many other algorithms and can be a competitive method for solving the FJSP.

Flexible flow shop (or a hybrid flow shop) scheduling problem is an extension of classical flow shop scheduling problem. In a simple flow shop configuration, a job having 'g' operations is performed on 'g' operation centres (stages) with each stage having only one machine. If any stage contains more than one machine for providing alternate processing facility, then the problem becomes a flexible flow shop problem (FFSP). FFSP which contains all the complexities involved in a simple flow shop and parallel machine scheduling problems is a well-known NPhard (Non-deterministic polynomial time) problem. Owing to high computational complexity involved in solving these problems, it is not always possible to obtain an optimal solution in a reasonable computation time. To obtain nearoptimal solutions in a reasonable computation time, a large variety of meta-heuristics have been proposed in the past. However, tuning algorithm-specific parameters for solving FFSP is rather tricky and time consuming. To address this limitation, teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) and JAYA algorithm are chosen for the study because these are not only recent meta-heuristics but they do not require tuning of algorithm-specific parameters. Although these algorithms seem to be elegant, they lose solution diversity after few iterations and get trapped at the local optima. To alleviate such drawback, a new local search procedure is proposed in this paper to improve the solution quality. Further, mutation strategy (inspired from genetic algorithm) is incorporated in the basic algorithm to maintain solution diversity in the population. Computational experiments have been conducted on standard benchmark problems to calculate makespan and computational time. It is found that the rate of convergence of TLBO is superior to JAYA. From the results, it is found that TLBO and JAYA outperform many algorithms reported in the literature and can be treated as efficient methods for solving the FFSP.Keywords Flexible flow shop Á JAYA algorithm Á Makespan Á Meta-heuristics Á Teaching-learning-based optimization J Ind Eng Int (2018) 14:555-570 https://doi.

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