Parallel flow shop scheduling problem using probability learning based evolutionary algorithm

The parallel flow shop scheduling problem is a new kind of scheduling problem,which possesses the characteristics of both the parallel machines scheduling and the flow shop scheduling.A general parallel flow shop problem with the objective of minimizing makespan is addressed,and a mixed integer programming model is given.In view of the intractable nature of the problem,a probability learning based evolutionary algorithm is proposed to solve the problem.This algorithm is tested on some randomly generated problems.Computational results show that the proposed approach is accurate and effective.