A fuzzy logic-based approach for multistage flowshop scheduling with arbitrary lags and transportation time

The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of arbitrary lags in n‐jobs, m machines flowshop scheduling problem involving the processing times and transportation times of jobs. Start lag is the minimum time which must elapse between starting of job i on the first machine and starting of job i on the last machine. The stop lag for the job i is the minimum time which must elapse between completing job i on the first machine and completing it on the last machine. The concept of fuzzy processing time to represent the uncertainty, vagueness in processing of jobs is introduced. An algorithm to find the optimal sequence so as to minimise the total elapsed time subject to some specified lag time constraint is discussed. A numerical illustration is given to demonstrate the computational efficiency of proposed algorithm as a valuable analytical tool for the researchers.