Hybrid flowshop with unrelated machines, sequence-dependent setup time, availability constraints and limited buffers

0360-8352/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.cie.2008.09.004 q This manuscript was processed by Area Editor Ma * Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +52 653 5356168 E-mail address: [email protected] (V. Yaurima This paper presents a genetic algorithm for an important production scheduling problem. Since the problem is NP-hard, we focus on suboptimal scheduling solutions for the hybrid flowshop with unrelated machines, sequence-dependent setup time, availability constraints, and limited buffers. The production environment of a television assembly line for inserting electronic components is considered. The proposed genetic algorithm is a modified and extended version of the algorithm for a problem without limited buffers. It takes into account additional limited buffer constraints and uses a new crossover operator and stopping criteria. Experimental results carried out on real production settings show an improvement in scheduling when the proposed algorithm is used. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.