Heuristic algorithm for scheduling in the no-wait flow-shop

Sequencing and scheduling are forms of decision making which play a key role in manufacturing. This paper presents the description of a scheduling algorithm for the solution of the no-wait flow-shop problem. The goal of the heuristic is to minimise the sum of the total flow-times, a criterion which at the same time minimises the average processing time. This is a sensible target in applications such as agile manufacturing where jobs are constantly added to the job list. When evaluated over a large number of problems of various sizes, the heuristic is found to be very effective in yielding near-optimal solutions.