Bi-objective simulated annealing approaches for no-wait two-stage flexible flow shop scheduling problem

This paper focuses on solving the bi-objective problem of no-wait two-stage flexible flow shop scheduling. The objectives considered in this study are minimum makespan (C-max), as well as maximum tardiness of jobs (T-max). This problem is known as NP-hard. Hence, three bi-objective optimization methods based on simulated annealing, called CWSA (classical weighted simulated annealing), NWSA (normalized weighted simulated annealing), and FSA (fuzzy simulated annealing), are developed to solve the problem with the goal of finding approximations of the optimal Pareto front. Due to the fact that meta-heuristic algorithms are very vigilant of parameter values, we proposed a new reliable method, by mixing the Taguchi method and a Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODM) approach, for achieving our purpose. The algorithms are evaluated by solving both small and large scale problems. The performances are evaluated in terms of a relative deviation index. Finally, the result of the study is discussed and concluded, and potential areas of further study are highlighted. (C) 2013 Sharif University of Technology. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.