A very fast tabu search algorithm for the permutation flow shop problem with makespan criterion

This paper deals with a classic flow-shop scheduling problem with makespan criterion. Some new properties of the problem associated with the blocks have been presented and discussed. These properties allow us to propose a new very fast local search procedure based on a tabu search approach. Computational experiments (up to 500 jobs and 20 machines) are given and compared with the results yielded by the best algorithms discussed in the literature. These results show that the algorithm proposed solves the flow-shop instances with high accuracy in a very short time. The presented properties and ideas can be applied in any local search procedures.