A genetic algorithm for a single hoist scheduling in the printed-circuit-board electroplating line

In this paper, the problem of determining cyclic schedules for a material handling hoist in the printed-circuit-board(PCB) electroplating line is considered. The objective of this research is to determine an optimal simple-cycle schedule of the hoist which in turn maximizes the line throughput rate. Previous approaches to the cyclic hoist scheduling problem are all mathematical programming-based approaches to develop cyclic schedules(Mixed Integer Programming, Linear Programming based Branch and Bound, Branch and Bound Search Method and so on). In this paper, a genetic algorithm-based approach for a single hoist scheduling in the PCB electroplating line is described. Through an experiment for the well known example data, the proposed algorithm is shown to be more efficient than the previous mathematical programming-based algorithm.