An improved memetic algorithm for distributed hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with operation inspection and reprocessing

Abstract

The classical distributed hybrid flow shop scheduling problem (DHFSP) only considers static production settings while ignores operation inspection and reprocessing. However, in the actual production, the manufacturing environment is usually dynamic; and the operation inspection and reprocessing are very necessary to avoid unqualified jobs from being transported to other production units and to make reasonable arrangements for unqualified and unprocessed jobs. In this paper, we propose a DHFSP with operation inspection and reprocessing (DHFSPR) for the first time, in which the operation inspection and reprocessing as well as the processing time and energy consumption are considered simultaneously. An improved memetic algorithm (IMA) is then designed to solve the DHFSPR, where some effective crossover and mutation operators, a new dynamic rescheduling method (DRM) and local search operator (LSO) are integrated. A total 60 DHFSPR benchmark instances are constructed to verify the performance of our IMA. Extensive experiments carried out demonstrate that the DRM and LSO can effectively improve the performance of IMA, and the IMA has obvious superiority to solve the DHFSPR problem compared with other three well-known algorithms. Our proposed model and algorithm here will be beneficial for the production managers who work with distributed hybrid shop systems in scheduling their production activities by considering operation inspection and reprocessing.