Simple Algorithms for Gilmore–Gomory's Traveling Salesman and Related Problems
Journal of Scheduling
Scheduling and lot streaming in flowshops with no-wait in process
Journal of Scheduling
A faster polynomial algorithm for 2-cyclic robotic scheduling
Journal of Scheduling
A novel hybrid discrete differential evolution algorithm for blocking flow shop scheduling problems
Computers and Operations Research
Expert Systems with Applications: An International Journal
A hybrid harmony search algorithm for the blocking permutation flow shop scheduling problem
Computers and Industrial Engineering
A three-phase algorithm for flowshop scheduling with blocking to minimize makespan
Computers and Operations Research
Solving the Fm\block\Cmax problem using Bounded Dynamic Programming
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
Service-Oriented Line Planning and Timetabling for Passenger Trains
Transportation Science
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We consider a blocking (i.e., bufferless) flowshop that repetitively processes a minimal part set to minimize its cycle time, or equivalently to maximize its throughput rate. The best previous heuristic procedure solves instances with 9 machines and 25 jobs, with relative errors averaging about 3% but sometimes as much as 10%. The idea of deliberately slowing down the processing of operations (i.e., increasing their processing times) establishes a precise mathematical connection between this problem and a no-wait flowshop. This enables a very effective heuristic for the no-wait flowshop to be adapted as a heuristic for the blocking flowshop. Our computational results show relative errors that average less than 2% for instances with 20 machines and 250 jobs.