Extension of the Dynasearch to the Two-Machine Permutation Flowshop Scheduling Problem

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to construct a solution algorithm for the two-machine permutation flowshop problem based on the dynasearch. The dynasearch is an efficient local search algorithm that employs a special neighborhood structure called dynasearch swap neighborhood. Its primary advantage is that the neighborhood of a solution can be explored in polynomial time although it is composed of an exponential number of solutions. The dynasearch for machine scheduling was originally developed for the single-machine total weighted tardiness problem. Then, it was extended to the problem with idle time and setup times. This study further extends the dynasearch to the two-machine permutation flowshop problem and its effectiveness is examined by numerical experiments for both total weighted tardiness and total weighted earliness-tardiness objectives.