Design of a testbed for hybrid flow shop scheduling with identical machines. (March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fernandez-Viagas, Victor; Framinan, Jose M.
• Is Part Of: Computers & industrial engineering. Volume 141(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-03
• Subjects: Scheduling -- Hybrid flow shop -- Flexible flowshop -- Flowshop -- Benchmark -- Testbed -- Instances generator -- Makespan; Engineering -- Data processing -- Periodicals; Industrial engineering -- Periodicals; 620.00285
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cie.2020.106288
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-8352

Abstract

Highlights: We address the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem to minimize makespan. We review previous sets of instances generated for the problem in the literature. We design a new set of instances for the problem. We compare the proposed set against previous testbeds in the literature. Abstract: In this paper, we present two extensive sets of instances for the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem. The first set is composed of 240 instances with a small number of jobs, while in the second set 240 instances with a large number of jobs are considered. A rigorous methodology to develop these testbeds is proposed, so the instances comply with the requirements of empirical hardness, adequacy to the problem, exhaustiveness, and amenity for statistical analysis. A total of 57, 600 instances have been randomly generated for different processing times and distributions of machines. Out of these instances, the 240 ones with better characteristics according to a number of indicators have been selected in each set. The extensive experimentation carried out proves that the proposed sets of instances satisfy all previous requirements and outperform in this regard all previous sets of instances used in the literature.