A Novel Adapted Multi-objective Meta-heuristic Algorithm for a Flexible Bi-objective Scheduling Problem Based on Physics Theory

We relax some assumptions of the traditional scheduling problem and suggest an adapted meta-heuristic algorithm to optimize efficient utilization of resources and quick response to demands simultaneously. We intend to bridge the existing gap between theory and real industrial scheduling assumptions (e.g., hot metal rolling industry, chemical and pharmaceutical industries). We adapt and evaluate a well-known algorithm based on electromagnetic science. The motivation behind our proposed meta-heuristic approach has arisen from the attraction-repulsion mechanism of electromagnetic theories in physics. In this basic idea, we desire to bring our search closer to a region with a superior objective function while going away from the region with the inferior objective function in order to move the solution gradually towards optimality. The algorithm is carefully evaluated for its performance against two existing algorithms using multi-objective performance measures and statistical tools. The results show that our proposed solution method outperforms the others.