A flower pollination algorithm for flexible job shop scheduling with fuzzy processing time

Considering the uncertainty in real manufacturing workshops, the fuzzy flexible job shop scheduling problem (fFJSP) is addressed, in which the triangular fuzzy number is used to represent the processing time. A discrete flower pollination algorithm (DFPA) is proposed in this paper to minimize the maximum fuzzy completion time. Flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is inspired by the pollination process of flowering plants, which realizes global search and local search by means of cross-pollination and self-pollination of flowers in nature. DFPA extends to FPA by introducing discrete operator during iterations. Simulation results on instances validate the effectiveness and feasibility of this algorithm compared with particle swarm optimization.