An estimation of distribution algorithm for minimizing the total flowtime in permutation flowshop scheduling problems

In this work we propose an estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) as a new tool aiming at minimizing the total flowtime in permutation flowshop scheduling problems. A variable neighbourhood search is added to the algorithm as an improvement procedure after creating a new offspring. The experiments show that our approach outperforms all existing techniques employed for the problem and can provide new upper bounds.