Alternative Heuristic Algorithm for Flow Shop Scheduling Problem

In this chapter an alternative heuristic algorithm is proposed that is assumed for a deterministic flow shop scheduling problem. The algorithm is addressed to an m-machine and n-job permutation flow shop scheduling problem for the objective of minimizing the make-span when idle time is allowed on machines. This chapter is composed in a way that the different scheduling approaches to solve flow shop scheduling problems are benchmarked. In order to compare the proposed algorithm against the benchmarked, selected heuristic techniques and genetic algorithm have been used. In realistic situation, the proposed algorithm can be used as it is without any modification and come out with acceptable results.