Designing a Tabu search algorithm to minimize total flow time in a flow shop

Abstract EN

This paper discusses the process of designing a tabu search based heuristic for minimizing total flow time in a permutation flow shop.

A factorial experiment is designed to systematically analyze the effects of various factors (namely, the initial solution, type of move, neighborhood size, tabu list size, stopping condition, and aspiration criterion) on the performance of the TS based heuristic.

Using the techniques of evolution curves, and response tables and response graphs, the best combination of the factors for the TS based heuristic algorithm is identified.

Empirical results of the comparison of the proposed TS based heuristic algorithm with the best known heuristic to solve the problem are reported and discussed.