Robotic flow shop scheduling with parallel machines and no-wait constraints in an aluminium anodising plant with the CMAES algorithm

Abstract

This paper proposes a covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMAES) based algorithm for a robotic flow shop scheduling problem with multiple robots and parallel machines. The algorithm is compared to three popular scheduling rules as well as existing schedules at a South African anodising plant. The CMAES algorithm statistically significantly outperformed all other algorithms for the size of problems currently scheduled by the anodising plant. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted on the number of tanks required at critical stages in the process to determine the effectiveness of the CMAES algorithm in assisting the anodising plant to make business decisions.