Application of Negotiable Evolutionary Algorithm in flexible manufacturing planning and scheduling

A Negotiable Evolutionary Algorithm (NEA) meta-heuristic approach is presented in this paper for solving the Integrated Production Planning and Scheduling (IPPS) problem in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS). The NEA approach addresses the rationales that we have identified as the key features required for effectively solving complex IPPS problems. Considerable experiments have been conducted and the results have confirmed that NEA outperforms the conventional EA approach.