A Hybrid Fireworks Algorithm for Integrated Hybrid Flowshop Scheduling with Sequence-Dependent Setup Times and Vehicle Routing Problems Considering Customer Priority

This paper investigated Integrated Hybrid Flowshop Scheduling with Sequence-Dependent Setup Times and Vehicle Routing Problems Considering Customer Priority (IHFSS-VRPC). The IHFSS-VRPC are joint optimization problems, which integrate the Hybrid Flowshop Scheduling with Sequence-Dependent Setup Times (HFSP-SDST) with the Vehicle Routing Problems (VRP) Considering Customer Priority and maximum driving distance constraint. The problems are different from the Integrated Hybrid Flowshop Scheduling Problems (HFSP) and VRP. To deal with the IHFSS-VRPC effectively, this paper proposed a Hybrid Fireworks Algorithm (HFWA). In the proposed HFWA, six key components, i.e., Two stage decoding, Population initialization, Variable Neighbourhood Search (VNS) based local search, Explosion amplitude calculation, Mutation operator and Selection strategy, were elaborately to enhance the search abilities. More specifically, the Two stage decoding was presented to compile effective schedules, the Population initialization, Explosion amplitude calculation and Selection strategy were devised to balance the exploitation and exploration capacities. The VNS based local search was developed to improve the exploitation capacities, while the Mutation operator was devised to enhance the exploration capacities. The performance of the proposed HFWA has been demonstrated by conducting comparison experiments on a set of instances.