Minimizing maximum lateness in a flow shop subject to release dates

We consider the problem of minimizing the maximum lateness in an m-machine flow shop subject to release dates. The objective of this paper is to develop a new branch-and-bound algorithm to solve exactly this strongly NP-hard problem. The proposed branch-and-bound algorithm encompasses several features including a procedure for adjusting heads and tails, heuristics, and a lower bounding procedure, which is based on the exact solution of the two-machine flow shop problem with time lags, ready times, and delivery times. Extensive computational experiments show that instances with up to 6000 operations can be solved exactly in a moderate CPU time.