An improved cuckoo search algorithm for scheduling jobs on identical parallel machines

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we propose an improved cuckoo search algorithm (ICSA) to minimize makespan for the identical parallel-machine scheduling problem. Starting with an initial population of schedules generated by using the longest processing time (LPT) rule and the job-interchange mechanism, we select the best schedule from this population and then execute the proposed ICSA. For the ICSA, we first propose a heuristic approach using a modulus operator to transform a continuous position in CSA into discrete schedule of jobs for generating a new cuckoo by Levy flights. Next, we present a heuristic procedure based on the pairwise exchange neighborhood to produce smart cuckoos in the proposed ICSA. We then conduct exhaustive computational experimentation on a large number of randomly generated well-known benchmark problems to show that the proposed ICSA produces better solutions than the six state-of-the-art existing algorithms.