A TSP-GA multi-objective algorithm for flow-shop scheduling

A multi-objective evolutionary search algorithm using a travelling salesman algorithm and genetic algorithm for flow-shop scheduling is proposed in this paper. The initial sequence is obtained by solving the TSP. The initial population of the genetic algorithm is created with the help of a neighbourhood creation scheme known as a random insertion perturbation scheme, which uses the sequence obtained from TSP. The proposed algorithm uses a weighted sum of multiple objectives as a fitness function. The weights are randomly generated for each generation to enable a multi-directional search. The performance measures considered include minimising makespan, mean flow time and machine idle time. The performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by applying it to benchmark problems available in the OR-Library.