A differential evolution algorithm for the permutation flowshop scheduling problem with total flow time criterion

In this paper a new discrete Differential Evolution algorithm for the Permutation Flowshop Scheduling Problem with the total flowtime criterion is proposed. The core of the algorithm is the distance-based differential mutation operator defined by means of a new randomized bubble sort algorithm. This mutation scheme allows the Differential Evolution to directly navigate the permutations search space. Experiments were held on a well known benchmark suite and the results show that our proposal outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms on the majority of the problems.