Scheduling a Many-Objective Energy-Efficient Hybrid Flow Shop with Variable Machine Speeds

In the context of promoting sustainable development through green manufacturing, energy-efficient hybrid flow shop scheduling problem (EHFSP) has gained significant attention. However, many-objective energy-efficient hybrid flow shop scheduling problem (MaOEHFSP) is neglected. This paper addresses a MaOEHFSP with variable machine speeds where total energy consumption, makespan, maximum machine load and total machine load are optimized simultaneously and a novel imperia-list competitive algorithm (NICA) is proposed. In NICA, a new assimilation is designed to enhance the diversity of population, a novel revolution is proposed to fully utilize computing resource and an imperialist competition with multiple transfers of colonies is also developed to change the structure of empires. Extensive experiments are conducted by comparing with other algorithms, and the results validate that NICA is superior to others in solving MaOEHFSP.