A two-machine flowshop sequencing problem with limited waiting time constraints

Abstract

We consider a two-machine flowshop sequencing problem with limited waiting time constraints. This means that for each job the waiting time between two machines cannot be greater than a given upper bound. The objective is to minimize the makespan. There are efficient algorithms for the special cases of infinite waiting time and zero waiting time. The two-machine flowshop sequencing problem with limited waiting time constraints is shown to be NP-hard. A branch-and-bound algorithm is proposed, and computational experiments are provided.