A BRILS metaheuristic for non-smooth flow-shop problems with failure-risk costs

This paper analyzes a realistic variant of the permutation flow-shop problem (PFSP) by considering a non-smooth objective function that takes into account not only the traditional makespan cost but also failure-risk costs due to uninterrupted operation of machines. After completing a literature review on the issue, the paper formulates an original mathematical model to describe this new PFSP variant. Then, a Biased-Randomized Iterated Local Search (BRILS) algorithm is proposed as an efficient solving approach. An oriented (biased) random behavior is introduced in the well-known NEH heuristic to generate an initial solution. From this initial solution, the algorithm is able to generate a large number of alternative good solutions without requiring a complex setting of parameters. The relative simplicity of our approach is particularly useful in the presence of non-smooth objective functions, for which exact optimization methods may fail to reach their full potential. The gains of cons...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2016
• Where: ESWA
• Authors: Alberto Ferrer, Daniel Guimarans, Helena Ramalhinho Dias Lourenço, Angel A. Juan
• Keywords: ESWA 2016