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Applied Soft Computing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/asoc

A hybrid discrete articial bee colony algorithm for permutation owshop scheduling problem
Yan-Feng Liu , San-Yang Liu
Department of Mathematics, Xidian University, Xian 710071, PR China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
To minimize the makespan in permutation owshop scheduling problems, a hybrid discrete articial bee colony (HDABC) algorithm is presented. In the HDABC, each solution to the problem is called a food source and represented by a discrete job permutation. First, the initial population with certain quality and diversity is generated from Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) based on NawazEnscoreHam (NEH) heuristics. Second, the discrete operators and algorithm, such as insert, swap, path relinking and GRASP are applied to generate new solution for the employed bees, onlookers and scouts. Moreover, local search is applied to the best one. The presented algorithm is tested on scheduling problem benchmarks. Experimental results show its efciency. 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 12 May 2011 Received in revised form 26 October 2011 Accepted 27 October 2011 Available online xxx Keywords: Scheduling Permutation owshop scheduling Articial bee colony algorithm GRASP NEH heuristics

1. Introduction The permutation owshop scheduling problem (PFSP) is a classical combinatorial optimization problem. In the PFSP, there is a set of n jobs to be processed in a set of m machines in the same order. The most common objective is to minimize the maximum completion time (i.e., makespan). The computational complexity of the PFSP with makespan objective has been proved to be NPcomplete by Garey et al. [1]. The survey on PFSP can be found in [2]. Since Johnson [3] published his rst paper on the PFSP, the PFSP has become one of the most interesting topics among researchers and practitioners. Due to the complexity of PFSP, the solution procedure for the PFSP is often either heuristic or metaheuristics. Several heuristics had been developed for solving the permutation ow shop problem in relatively early decades, e.g., Palmer heuristics [4], CDS heuristics [5], Gupta heuristics [6], Dannenbring heuristics [7], NEH heuristics [8], SPIRIT heuristics [9]. It is worth noting the NEH heuristic is currently one of the best constructive heuristics. Recently, Dong et al. [10] presented an improved NEHbased heuristic for the permutation owshop problem, Kalczynski and Kamburowski [11] proposed an improved NEH heuristic to minimize makespan in permutation ow shops, Farahmand Rad

Corresponding author. Tel: +86 13186066803. E-mail address: teacher2003@tom.com (Y.-F. Liu). 1568-4946/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2011.10.024

et al. [12] proposed a new high performing heuristics for minimizing makespan in the PFSP. An excellent review and classication of heuristics for solving the PFSP with the makespan criterion can be found in the paper of Farahmand Rad et al. [13]. Ruiz and Concepcin [14] presented a review and comparative evaluation of heuristics and meta-heuristics for the PFSP with the makespan criterion. On the other hand, Nowicki and Smutnicki [15] developed a fast tabu search for the PFSP. Ying and Liao [16] proposed an ant colony system (ACS) for the PFSP with the objective of minimizing the makespan. Tasgetiren et al. [17] presented a particle swarm optimization for makespan and total owtime minimization in the PFSP. Liu et al. [18], Jarboui et al. [19] solved the PFSP with a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, respectively. Liao et al. [20] developed a discrete version of particle swarm optimization for the PFSP. Reeves [21], Wang and Zheng [22], Nagano et al. [23], Tseng and Lin [24] applied a genetic algorithm to the PFSP, respectively. Azamathulla et al. [25] gave a comparison between genetic algorithm and linear programming approach. Pan et al. [26], Qian et al. [27] presented a differential evolution algorithm for the PFSP, respectively. Ruiz and Sttzle [28] presented a new iterated greedy algorithm for the PFSP. Vallada and Ruiz [29] solved the PFSP with a cooperative meta-heuristic method. Zobolas et al. [30] presented a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm for the PFSP. The Articial bee colony (ABC) algorithm was proposed by Karaboga [3133] for multidimensional and multi-modal optimization problems, which based on the foraging behavior of honey bees. To the best of our knowledge, there is no one paper on

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articial bee colony algorithm for minimizing the makespan in the PFSP. Very recently, Tasgetiren et al. [34] presented a discrete articial bee colony algorithm for the permutation ow shop scheduling problem with total ow time criterion, Pan et al. [35] proposed a discrete articial bee colony (DABC) for the lotstreaming ow shop scheduling problem. Following the successful applications above, this paper aims at employing a novel hybrid discrete articial bee colony (HDABC) algorithm in solving the PFSP with the objective to minimize the makespan. The main contribution of our work is to integrate the heuristics, GRASP and path relinking with the DABC. The presented algorithm is tested on scheduling problem benchmarks. Experimental results show its efciency. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Sections 2 and 3, PFSP and ABC are introduced, respectively. In Section 4, a HDABC for the PFSP is presented. The computational results on benchmarks together with comparison to other meta-heuristics are presented in Section 5. Finally, a conclusion is given in Section 6.

real-valued vector, whereas the tness of the solution is corresponded to the nectar amount of the associated food source. The colony of articial bees consists of three groups of bees: employed bees, onlookers and scouts. A bee waiting on the dance area for making decision to choose a food source, is named an onlooker and a bee going to the food source visited by itself previously is called an employed bee. A bee carrying out random search for a new food source is named a scout. The number of employed bees or the onlooker bees is equal to the number of food sources. Let Xi = {xi,1 , xi,2 , . . ., xi,n } represent the ith solution in the population, and then each solution is generated as follows: xi,j = LBj + r (UBj LBj ) (1)

where i = 1, 2, . . ., SN and j = 1, 2, . . ., n; r is a uniform random number in the range [0, 1]; LBj and UBj are the lower and upper bounds for the dimension j, respectively. In order to produce a candidate solution Yi = {yi,1 , yi,2 , . . ., yi,n } from the neighborhood of old ones, the ABC uses the following expression: yi,j = xi,j + (xi,j xk,j ) (2)

2. Permutation owshop scheduling problem In the PFSP, solutions are represented by the permutation of n jobs, i.e., = ( 1 , 2 , . . ., n ). Each job is composed of m operations, and every operation is performed by a different machine. Jobs, once initiated, cannot be interrupted (preempted) by another job on each machine and the release times of all jobs are zero. Thus, given the processing time tj,k for the job j on the machine k, the , , . . . , ) PFSP is to nd the best permutation of jobs = ( 1 n 2 to be processed on each machine subject to the makespan criterion. Let C( j , m) denotes the completion time of the job j on the machine m. Then given the job permutation , the completion time for the n-job, m-machine problem is calculated as follows: C ( 1 , 1) = t 1 ,1 C ( j , 1) = C ( j 1, 1) + t j ,1 j = 2, . . . , n C ( 1 , k) = C ( 1 , k 1) + t 1 ,k k = 2, . . . , m C ( j , k) = max(C ( j 1, k), C ( j , k 1)) + t j ,k j = 2, . . . , n; k = 2, . . . , m So, the makespan of a permutation can be formally dened as the completion time of the last job n on the last machine m, i.e., Cmax ( ) = C( n , m). Therefore, the PFSP with the makespan criterion is to nd the optimal permutation * in the set of all permutations such that Cmax ( * ) C( n , m) for each permutation belonging to .

where k = 1, 2, . . ., SN and j = 1, 2, . . ., n are randomly chosen indexes. k is different from i, is a random number between [ 1, 1]. If a solution cannot be further improved through a predetermined number of trials limit, the solution will be abandoned, and the corresponding employed bee becomes a scout. An articial onlooker bee chooses a food source depending on the probability value associated with that food source, pi , calculated by the following expression: pi = fit i n fit j=1 j (3)

where ti is the tness value of the food source Xi . After each solution Yi is produced and then evaluated by the articial bee, its performance is compared with that of its old one. If the new food source has an equal or better nectar than the old food source, it is replaced with the old one. Otherwise, the old one is retained. This is a greedy selection process. Following the [32], the ABC algorithm is described as follows:
Algorithm 1 ABC Algorithm. Step 1: Step 2: Step 3: Step 4: Step 5: Step 6: Step 7: Step 8: Initialize the population of solutions by (1) and evaluate the population. Produce new solutions Yi for the employed bees by using (2) and evaluate them. Apply the greedy selection process. Calculate the probability values pi for the solutions Xi by (3). Produce the new solutions Yi for the onlookers from the solutions Xi selected depending on pi and evaluate them. Apply the greedy selection process. Determine the abandoned solution for the scout, if exists, and replace it with a new randomly produced solution Yi by (1). If a termination is not satised, go to step 2; otherwise, stop the procedure and output the best food source found so far.

3. Articial bee colony algorithm Articial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is a new nature-inspired algorithm. It was originally proposed for unconstrained and constrained function optimization problems. Because ABC algorithm has many advantages, such as memory, multi-character, local search and solution improvement mechanism, it is an excellent optimization technique. The ABC algorithm has been successfully applied to a wide range of applications such as function optimization [32,36], neural network training [37], clustering analysis [38], the vehicle routing problem [39], the routing and wave-length assignment problem [40], the leaf-constrained minimums panning tree problems [41], the p-center problem [42], and the reliability redundancy allocation problem [43]. In the ABC algorithm, each solution to the problem under consideration is called a food source and represented by an n dimension

4. The hybrid DABC algorithm for permutation owshop scheduling problem 4.1. NEH heuristics The NEH heuristic [8] is regarded as the best heuristic for the PFSP. It has three phases which are explained as follows:

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Algorithm 2 NEH heuristic. Step 1: For each job j, compute the total processing time Tj on the m machines:
m

Tj =
k =1

tj,k ,

j = 1, 2, . . . , n

(4)

Step 2:

Step 3:

Sort the jobs in descending order of Tj . Let the resulting permutation be = ( 1 , 2 , . . ., n ). Next, the rst two jobs (that is, 1 and 2 are the ones with the largest total processing time) are chosen and two possible permutation of these two jobs are evaluated. Repeat the following steps until all jobs are sequenced. In the ith step, the job i at position i is taken and tentatively inserted into all the possible i positions of the permutation of the jobs that are already scheduled. Select of these i tentative permutations the one that results in the minimum makespan.

4.2. GRASP based on NEH heuristic Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) was rst proposed by Feo and Resende [44,45] to solve hard combinatorial problems. A review of the literature and applications of the GRASP algorithm can be found in [46]. GRASP is a multi-start local search procedure, each iteration in the GRASP is made up of two phases: a constructive and a local search phase. In the constructive phase, a feasible solution is builded by probabilistically selecting the next element to be incorporated in a partial solution from a restricted candidate list (RCL), which is composed of the best elements, as measured by a greedy function. In the local search phase, local search is applied to the constructed solution until a local optimum is found. To generate the initial population with certain quality and diversity, we presented a GRASP based on NEH heuristic [52]. A construction phase of GRASP based on NEH heuristic is described as following:
Algorithm 3 A construction phase of GRASP based on NEH heuristic. Step 1: For each job j, compute the total processing time Tj by using (4). Set value ( [0, 1], when = 0, the constructive algorithm corresponds to a totally random algorithm; when = 1, the algorithm corresponds to the NEH heuristic without local search). Empty the RCL, compute tmin = minjC {Tj }, tmax = maxjC {Tj }, where C is the set of jobs that remain to be selected. Compute threshold value L = min + (max min). If Tj L, j C , job j is added in the RCL. Select a job from the RCL at random and add it to partial solution. If a solution is not complete, go to Step 2.

path relinking technique is applied in order to generate a solution between Xi and Xk . Path relinking based on interchange movements. Suppose A is origin solution, B is destination solution, each solution has ve jobs: A = {1, 2, 5, 3, 4}, B = {3, 4, 2, 1, 5}. Interchange movements of the path relinking to transform A into B as follows: the job 1 placed on position 1 of A will be placed on position 4 of A, which is the position of the job 1 in B, hence we obtain a new intermediate solution C = {3, 2, 5, 1, 4}, continue, we obtain a new intermediate solution D = {3, 5, 2, 1, 4}. Note that the set of movements is not symmetric, that is, the movements from solutions A to B are not the same that those from solutions B to A. In our method, if 0, Xi is origin solution, Xk is destination solution; else, Xk is origin solution, Xi is destination solution. If the intermediate solution does not exist, the new solution is Xi or Xk at random. If exist, the new solution is the intermediate solution with the lowest makespan among all movements.

4.5. Onlooker bee phase In this work, an onlooker bee chooses a food source depending on the probability value associated with that food source, which is the same as the ABC algorithm. Once an onlooker bee has selected its food source Xi , it produce a new food source Yi through the insert or swap operator (randomly) on Xi . If Yi has a better or equal nectar amount than Xi , Yi will replace Xi and become a new solution in the population.

4.6. Scout bee phase In the DABC [35], the scout generates a solution by performing three insert operators to the best solution in the population. In this work, the scout generates a solution by applying the GRASP based on NEH heuristic. In the scout bee phase, the value is xed. Thus, the scout generated a good solution through a proper value. 4.7. Variable Neighborhood Search To improve the performance, a modied Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) [48] is incorporated into our method as a hybrid strategy. We use two structures of neighborhoods, called swap local search and insert local search, respectively. In the rst one, all possible swaps of pairs of jobs positions is considered, in the second one, each job is considered for possible insertion in all other positions. First, we select the best individual as the seed permutation. Then, repeat searching each neighborhood for the best local optimum until no improvement appears: if the local optimum is better than the seed permutation, update the seed permutation, and continue the search in the neighborhood; otherwise change the neighborhood, and continue search.

Step 2:

Step 3: Step 4: Step 5:

In the local search phase, the local search method is the same as the NEH. 4.3. Population initialization In the ABC, initial population is often generated randomly. To guarantee an initial swarm with certain quality and diversity, the GRASP based on NEH heuristic is applied to generate initial swarm. In the construction phase of each solution, [0, 1] is a random number. 4.4. Employed bee phase In the DABC [35], the insert or swap operator are separately utilized to generate neighboring food sources for the employed bees. In (2), a new solution is generated by combining two solutions, inspired by this, an approach based on the path relinking is proposed to generate new solutions for the employed bees. Path relinking is a search technique originally proposed by Glover and Laguna [47]. Path relinking is frequently used as a local search procedure between two good solutions. In this work, a

4.8. Stopping criterion There are two basic stopping criterions in this algorithm. One is maximum number of iterations, the other is maximum elapsed time. In this paper, the stopping criterion is the maximum number of iterations or maximum elapsed time.

4.9. HDABC procedure The procedure of HDABC as follows:

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Y.-F. Liu, S.-Y. Liu / Applied Soft Computing xxx (2011) xxxxxx Table 2 Comparisons of HDABC with GARMA, ACS, ACO and CGALS. Problem size n, m 20, 5 20, 10 20, 20 50, 5 50, 10 50, 20 100, 5 100, 10 HDABC GARMA ACS ACO CGALS

Step 5: Step 6: Step 7:

Step 8: Step 9:

Initialize the population of solutions by applying the GRASP based on NEH heuristic. Produce new solutions for the employed bees by using the approach based on the path relinking and evaluate them. Apply the greedy selection process. Calculate the probability values for the each solution. The onlooker bees choose solutions depending on the probability value associated with that solution. Produce the new solutions for the onlooker bees and evaluate them. Apply the greedy selection process. Determine the abandoned solution for the scout, if exists, and replace it with a new produced solution by applying the GRASP based on NEH heuristic. The modied VNS is applied to the best individual. If the specied stopping criterion is satised, stop; otherwise, go to step 2.

Quality 0 0.15 0.20 0.02 0.99 1.98 0 0.52

ART 1.13 5.6 10.8 3.44 12.76 27.1 5.89 25.6

Quality 0.29 0.63 0.41 0.06 1.76 2.62 0.07 0.60

Quality 1.19 1.70 1.60 0.43 1.89 2.71 0.22 1.22

ART 11 12 16 44 54 73 163 197

Quality 0.04 0.17 0.08 0.07 1.01 2.25 0 0.57

Quality 0.05 0.19 0.08 0.02 1.65 2.67 0.02 0.60

5. Computational results and comparisons To test the performance of the proposed algorithm, HDABC was coded in C++programming language. All experiments are run on a desktop PC with Intel Pentium IV, Windows XP, 3.06 GHz and 0.99 GB memory. Above all, computational simulation is carried out with 21 problems which are called Rec1, Rec3 through Rec41 by Reeves [21]. The parameters were xed as following: SN = 20, limit = 5, = 0.7, for Rec01, Rec03 through Rec29, the maximum number of iterations is 500, for Rec31, Rec33 through Rec41, the maximum number of iterations is 200. The computational simulation is executed at 20 independent times, and the statistical results and comparisons are shown in Table 1, where C* is the optimal makespan or lower bound known so far, including the best relative error to C* (BRE), average relative error to C* (ARE), average CPU time in seconds (ART), From Table 1, it is shown that the BRE and ARE values obtained by HDABC are much better than those obtained by PSOVNS [50] for all the instances. It also is shown that the BRE and ARE values obtained by HDABC are better than those obtained by HGA [22] for all other instances except Rec07 and Rec23 and Rec31. So, in brief, our HDABC is more effective than PSOVNS and HGA. Moreover, it is shown that the BRE and ARE values obtained by HDABC are better than those obtained by PSOMA [18] for 14 instances except Rec15, Rec17, Rec25, Rec31, Rec33, Rec37, Rec39 and Rec41. In order to further test HDABC, computational simulation is carried out with Taillard benchmark [49]. It comprises a set of 120 problems ranging from 20 jobs and 5 machines to 500 jobs and 20 machines, there are 10 instances for each problem size. In this paper, the benchmark problems from Taillard were considered, with m = 5, 10 and 20 and n = 20, 50 and 100. The maximum elapsed time was given the value of n m/10, which results in practical computational times for all Taillard instances. The parameters were xed as above. To evaluate the algorithm, each of the problem instances was tested for 10 trials. The best one trial was chosen and the 10 instances for the same problem size were averaged. The nal results are shown in Table 2, which gives a comparison with other modern meta-heuristics, the solution quality is measured by the mean percentage difference from Taillards lower bound known so far. From Table 2, it is shown that the quality obtained by HDABC are much better than those obtained by ACS [16] and GARMA [23] for all the instances. Compared with the better performing algorithms CGALS [23] and ACO [51], except the problem size: n = 20, m = 20, the quality obtained by HDABC are much better for all other the instances.

Table 1 Comparisons of HDABC with PSOVNS, PSOMA and HGA. Problem n, m HDABC BRE Rec01 Rec03 Rec05 Rec07 Rec09 Rec11 Rec13 Rec15 Rec17 Rec19 Rec21 Rec23 Rec25 Rec27 Rec29 Rec31 Rec33 Rec35 Rec37 Rec39 Rec41 20, 5 20, 5 20, 5 20, 10 20, 10 20, 10 20, 15 20, 15 20, 15 30, 10 30, 10 30, 10 30, 15 30, 15 30, 15 50, 10 50, 10 50, 10 75, 20 75, 20 75, 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.104 0.667 0.789 0.382 1.437 0.447 1.154 0.801 1.006 1.839 0.385 0 3.090 1.828 2.943 ARE 0.128 0.041 0.145 0.934 0.059 0.073 0.474 0.956 1.669 1.247 1.448 1.235 2.085 1.483 1.650 2.274 0.759 0 3.70 2.349 3.773 ART 0.05 0.8 0.45 0.3 0.75 0.65 1.5 1.5 1.5 3.85 2.05 4.4. 3.80 4.95 5.58 9.05 6.35 2.1 25.65 42.5 51.8 PSOVNS BRE 0.16 0 0.242 0.702 0 0.071 1.036 0.769 0.999 1.529 1.487 1.343 2.388 1.728 1.968 2.594 0.835 0 4.383 2.850 4.173 ARE 0.168 0.158 0.249 1.095 0.651 1.153 1.790 1.487 2.453 2.099 1.671 2.106 3.166 2.463 3.109 3.232 1.007 0.038 4.949 3.371 4.867 BRE 0 0 0.242 0 0 0 0.259 0.051 0 0.43 1.437 0.596 0.835 1.348 1.442 1.510 0 0 2.101 1.553 2.641 PSOMA ARE 0.144 0.189 0.249 0.986 0.621 0.129 0.893 0.628 1.330 1.313 1.596 1.310 2.085 1.605 1.888 2.254 0.645 0 3.537 2.426 3.684 HGA BRE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.36 0.56 0.95 0.62 1.44 0.40 1.27 1.10 1.40 0.43 0 0 3.75 2.20 3.64 ARE 0.14 0.09 0.29 0.69 0.64 1.10 1.68 1.12 2.32 1.32 1.57 0.87 2.54 1.83 2.70 1.34 0.78 0 4.90 2.79 4.92

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6. Conclusion In this paper, a hybrid discrete articial bee colony algorithm is presented for minimizing the makespan in permutation owshop scheduling problem. The main advantage is to integrate traditional heuristics, GRASP and path relinking with the DABC. Moreover, to improve the performance, a local search is embedded as a hybrid strategy. Computational results and comparisons demonstrate that the HDABC is competitive. Our future work is to generalize the application of the HDABC algorithm to solve other combinatorial problems. References
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Please cite this article in press as: Y.-F. Liu, S.-Y. Liu, A hybrid discrete articial bee colony algorithm for permutation owshop scheduling problem, Appl. Soft Comput. J. (2011), doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2011.10.024