An improved biogeography-based optimization for achieving optimal job shop scheduling solutions

In job shop scheduling, we attempt to optimally assign a set of machines to a set of operations. The purpose of this research is to develop an improved biogeography-based optimization approach in order to minimize makespan in the job shop scheduling problems. Stepwise delineation of the proposed approach is provided and twenty-two well-studied problem instances of job shop scheduling are solved by the proposed improved biogeography-based optimization in order to prove its efficiency and effectiveness. The numerical results indicate that the proposed algorithm is able to provide optimal or near-optimal schedules for all of the problem instances.