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A New Ant Algorithmic Approach for Solving PFSP

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Abstract

In this paper, a new ant algorithmic approach is presented for solving \(n\)-job, \(m\)-machine permutation flow shop scheduling problem. The main objective is to find a permutation of \(n\) given jobs, i.e., \(\sigma {:}\,\left\{ {1,2, \ldots ,n} \right\} \to \left\{ {1,2, \ldots ,n} \right\}\). This permutation minimizes the maximum completion time of the schedule arising from \(\sigma\). An illustration of using the presented heuristic algorithm for finding a good initial sequence of jobs is given. The proposed method is an ant-based approach to permutation flow shop scheduling problem by the behavior of real ants, but it is different with the pheromone trail concept. The presented model is compared against the one by NEH which has been considered the best constructive algorithm so far. Regarding the quality of results, the superiority of the proposed method over NEH is demonstrated by computational evaluation. The comparison is produced on generated random test problems. This comparison is drawn in domain of feasible instances. It is easy to implement the produced method as a metaheuristic.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, Payame Noor University, P.O. Box. 19395-3697, Tehran, Iran

    Shahriar Farahmand Rad

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  1. Shahriar Farahmand Rad
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Shahriar Farahmand Rad. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Shahriar Farahmand Rad and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shahriar Farahmand Rad.

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Farahmand Rad, S. A New Ant Algorithmic Approach for Solving PFSP. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Sci 46, 181–188 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40995-021-01202-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40995-021-01202-4

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