Hybrid flowshop with unrelated machines, sequence-dependent setup time, availability constraints and limited buffers

This paper presents a genetic algorithm for an important production scheduling problem. Since the problem is NP-hard, we focus on suboptimal scheduling solutions for the hybrid flowshop with unrelated machines, sequence-dependent setup time, availability constraints, and limited buffers. The production environment of a television assembly line for inserting electronic components is considered. The proposed genetic algorithm is a modified and extended version of the algorithm for a problem without limited buffers. It takes into account additional limited buffer constraints and uses a new crossover operator and stopping criteria. Experimental results carried out on real production settings show an improvement in scheduling when the proposed algorithm is used.