The permutation flow shop with buffers: A tabu search approach

The paper deals with the criteria of makespan minimisation for the permutation flow shop problem with buffers of limited capacity located between successive machines. As the problem is NP-hard, an approximation algorithm is proposed which has been designed using a non-trivial generalisation of the block elimination properties known for the classic flow shop problem. This algorithm is able to achieve excellent results for problems up to 200 jobs and 20 machines as it exploits the structural properties defined in the problem and combines these with a local search technique controlled by a tabu search strategy.