A hybrid iterated greedy algorithm for the distributed no-wait flow shop scheduling problem

Abstract

This paper proposes a hybrid iterated greedy (HIG) algorithm to solve the distributed no-wait flow shop scheduling problem (DNWFSP) with the makespan criterion. The HIG mainly consists of four components, i.e. initialization phase, construction and destruction, local search, acceptance criterion. In the initialization phase, a modified NEH (Nawaz-Enscore-Ham) is proposed to generate a promising initial solution. In the local search phase, four local searching methods based on problem properties (i.e. insert move within factory, insert move between factories, swap move between factories) are proposed to enhance searching ability. The effectiveness of the initialization phase and local search method is shown by numerical comparison, and the comparisons with the recently published iterated greedy algorithms demonstrate the high effectiveness and searching ability of the proposed HIG for solving the DNWFSP.