A decomposition based algorithm for flexible flow shop scheduling with machine breakdown

Abstract

Research on flow shop scheduling generally ignores uncertainties in real-world production because of the inherent difficulties of the problem. Scheduling problems with stochastic machine breakdown are difficult to solve optimally by a single approach. This paper considers makespan optimization of a flexible flow shop (FFS) scheduling problem with machine breakdown. It proposes a novel decomposition based approach (DBA) to decompose a problem into several sub-problems which can be solved more easily, while the neighbouring K-means clustering algorithm is employed to group the machines of an FFS into a few clusters. A back propagation network (BPN) is then adopted to assign either the shortest processing time (SPT) or the genetic algorithm (GA) to each cluster to solve the subproblems. If two neighbouring clusters are allocated with the same approach, they are subsequently merged. After machine grouping and approach assignment, an overall schedule is generated by integrating the solutions to the sub-problems. Computation results reveal that the proposed approach is superior to SPT and GA alone for FFS scheduling with machine breakdown.Keywords -flexible flow shop; decomposition based approach; neighbouring K-means clustering algorithm; back propagation network; machine breakdown

An Evolutionary Approach for Solving the N-Jobs M-Machines Permutation Flow-Shop Scheduling Problem with Break-Down Times

“…The PFSP has been solved with different methods. For example, in [11] a greedy heuristic was used while in [8] and [10] DBA and B&B (branch and bound) algorithms were used respectively. The use of a GA (Genetic Algorithm) was explored in [12] with significant results.…”

“…In [6] a heuristic approach was proposed for solving the 3-machines N-jobs flow-shop considering transportation times and weights of jobs in addition to breakdown times. In [8] the makespan for a flexible flow-shop was optimized by using a decomposition based algorithm (DBA). Another work involving a 3-machines N-jobs flow-shop was presented in [9] where a heuristic algorithm was proposed for solving the scheduling problem with break-down times and weights of jobs.…”