A competitive memetic algorithm for multi-objective distributed permutation flow shop scheduling problem

Abstract In this paper, a competitive memetic algorithm (CMA) is proposed to solve the multi-objective distributed permutation flow-shop scheduling problem (MODPFSP) with the makespan and total tardiness criteria. Two populations corresponding to two different objectives are employed in the CMA. Some objective-specific operators are designed for each population, and a special interaction mechanism between two populations is designed. Moreover, a competition mechanism is proposed to adaptively adjust the selection rates of the operators, and some knowledge-based local search operators are developed to enhance the exploitation ability of the CMA. In addition, the influence of the parameters on the performance of the CMA is investigated by using the Taguchi method of design-of-experiment. Finally, extensive computational tests and comparisons are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the CMA in solving the MODPFSP.