Scheduling Flexible Assembly Systems with Taboo Search Algorithm

A taboo search scheduling algorithm is proposed for scheduling operations of products with intree assembly structure. The neighbor search part of the algorithm takes a "shifting-subtree" technique to avoid incurring infeasible solutions; composed dispatching rules are introduced to get high quality initial solutions, which is critical for taboo search. In addition, parts and corresponding assemblies on the assembly tree are integrated as composite jobs, which simplifies the scheduling program greatly. The computation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.