A memetic algorithm for Permutation Flow Shop Problems

The Permutation Flow Shop Scheduling Problem (PFSP) is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem. In this paper, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based approach has been developed to solve PFSP, with the objective of minimizing the makespan for a set of jobs. Two new priority rules; such as Gap Filling (GF) technique and Job Shifting (JS), have been introduced to enhance the performance of the GA. The algorithm has been used to solve a set of standard benchmark problems and the results have been compared with state-of-the-art algorithms. The comparison demonstrates that the overall performance of the algorithm is quite satisfactory.