The dual-resource-constrained re-entrant flexible flow shop a constraint programming approach and a hybrid genetic algorithm

Johanna Mlekusch and Richard F. Hartl

International Journal of Production Research, 2025, vol. 63, issue 5, 1803-1824

Abstract: The dual-resource-constrained re-entrant flexible flow shop scheduling problem represents a specialised variant of the flow shop scheduling problem, inspired by real-world scenarios in screen printing industries. Besides the well-known flow shop structure, stages consist of identical parallel machines and operations may re-enter the same stage multiple times before completion. Moreover, each machine must be operated by a skilled worker, making it a dual-resource-constrained problem according to the existing literature. The objective is to minimise the total length of the production schedule. To address this problem, our study employs two methods: a constraint programming model and a hybrid genetic algorithm with a single-level solution representation and an efficient decoding heuristic. To evaluate the performance of our methods, we conducted a computational study using different problem instances. Our findings demonstrate that the proposed hybrid genetic algorithm consistently delivers high-quality solutions, particularly for large instances, while also maintaining a short computational time. Additionally, our methods improve existing benchmark results for instances from the literature for a subclass of the problem. Furthermore, we provide managerial insights into how dual-resource constraints affect the solution quality and the efficiency associated with different workforce configurations in the described production setting.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2024.2392198

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