A Combined Discrete Event Simulation and Factorial Design Experiment for the Scheduling Problem in a Hybrid Flow Shop

Production plants have always been confronted with the problem of scheduling, as this has a direct impact on production time and therefore on production costs. This is especially true in today's world, where it is necessary to produce a quality product at a low price and in a short time, while at the same time responding flexibly to customer demands. Due to the complexity and for economic reasons, testing different variants in a real production environment is insufficient and ineffective. For this reason, this paper proposes a new method that combines discrete event simulation and factorial design experiment to find the optimal schedule in hybrid flow shop. It was tested with the goal of achieving the minimum makespan. The results show that this method makes it possible to find improved solution very quickly. Compared to the original production schedule, the makespan could be reduced by 3 hours and 31 minutes which is reduction of 16.3%. The proposed methodology can be used in many discrete and process production plants.