A multi-objective simulated-annealing algorithm for scheduling in flowshops to minimize the makespan and total flowtime of jobs

The problem of permutation flowshop scheduling with the objectives of minimizing the makespan and total flowtime of jobs was considered and a multi-objective simulated-annealing algorithm (MOSA) was discussed. Two initial sequences were obtained using simple and fast existing heuristics, supplemented by the implementation of three improvement schemes. Two variants of the proposed algorithm, called MOSA-I and MOSA-II, with different parameter settings with respect to the temperature and epoch length, were considered in the performance evaluation of algorithms. It was found that most of the solutions in the net non-dominated front are yielded by MOSA-I and MOSA-II.