Minimum deviation algorithm for two-stageno-wait flowshops with parallel machines

The scheduling problems studied in this paper concern the two-stage no-wait flowshops with parallel machines under the objective function of the minimization of the maximum completion time. A new heuristic algorithm, i.e., the minimum deviation algorithm, is developed to solve the problems. In order to evaluate the average case performance of the algorithm, we design numerical experiments to compare the effectiveness of the algorithm with that of the other approximation algorithms. Extensive simulations are conducted under different shop conditions, and the results statistically show that the minimum deviation algorithm performs well under most of the situations.