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A Bottleneck-Assignment Based Branch-and-Bound Algorithm to Minimize the Makespan in an m-Machine Permutation Flowshop

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Technology Operation Management

Abstract

This work aims at the minimization of makespan in m-machine permutation flowshops and presents an efficient branch-and-bound algorithm to solve this problem optimally. A job-based lower bound, integrated with a machine-based lower bound, is proposed which in turn is deployed in solving a bottleneck assignment problem to obtain a tight lower bound on the makespan. The algorithm is evaluated by solving many randomly generated problems of different problem sizes and the results of an extensive computational investigation are presented. In addition, the proposed branch-and-bound algorithm is compared with an existing bounding scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600 036, India

    N. Madhushini & Chandrasekharan Rajendran

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  1. N. Madhushini
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  2. Chandrasekharan Rajendran
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Correspondence to Chandrasekharan Rajendran.

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Madhushini, N., Rajendran, C. A Bottleneck-Assignment Based Branch-and-Bound Algorithm to Minimize the Makespan in an m-Machine Permutation Flowshop. Technol. Oper. Manag. 3, 1–10 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13727-012-0011-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13727-012-0011-0

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