Genetic Algorithm to minimize flowtime in a no-wait flowshop scheduling problem

No-wait flowshop is an important scheduling environment having application in many industries. This paper addresses a no-wait flowshop scheduling problem, where the objective function is to minimise total flowtime. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization approach implemented in a spreadsheet environment is suggested to solve this important class of problem. The proposed algorithm employs a general purpose genetic algorithm which can be customised with ease to address any objective function without modifying the optimization routine. Performance of the proposed approach is compared with eight previously reported algorithms for two sets of benchmark problems. Experimental analysis shows that the performance of the suggested approach is comparable with earlier approaches in terms of quality of solution.