A Hybrid Local Search Algorithm for the Sequence Dependent Setup Times Flowshop Scheduling Problem with Makespan Criterion

This paper focuses on the flowshop scheduling problem with sequence dependent setup times (FSSP-SDST), which has been an investigated object for decades as one of the most popular scheduling problems in manufacturing systems. A novel hybrid local search algorithm called HLS is presented to solve the flowshop scheduling problem with sequence dependent setup times with the criterion of minimizing the makespan. Firstly, the population is initialized by the Nawaz-Enscore-Hoam based problem-specific method (NEHBPS) to generate high quality individuals of the current population. Then, a global search embedded with a light perturbation is designed to produce a new population. After that, to improve the quality of individuals in the current population, a single insertion-based local search is applied. Meanwhile, a further local search strategy based on the insertion-based local search is used to find better solutions for the individuals which are non-improved. Finally, the heavy perturbation is used to explore potential solutions in the neighbor region. To validate the performance of HLS, we compare our proposed algorithm with other competitive algorithms on Taillard benchmark problems. From the experimental results, it can be concluded that the proposed algorithm outperforms the benchmark algorithms.