Heuristics for scheduling in a flowshop with setup, processing and removal times separated

The problem of scheduling in a flowshop, where setup, processing and removal times are separable, is considered with the objective of minimizing makespan. Heuristic algorithms are developed by the introduction of simplifying assumptions into the scheduling problem under study. An improvement method is incorporated in the heuristics to enhance the quality of their solutions. The proposed heuristics and an existing heuristic are evaluated by a large number of randomly generated problems. The results of an extensive computational investigation for various values of parameters are presented. © 1997 Taylor & Francis Ltd.