Material Flow Optimization of a Machine Loading Problem

In the machine loading problem, job selection problem and an operation allocation problem are considered. The different jobs to be manufactured are selected and their sequence of operations is carried out in this machine loading problem. Thus, machine loading problem is a crucial problem in the flexible manufacturing industry. In this paper, a mathematical model is prepared with both continuous and zero–one variables for job selection and operation allocation problems. The objective function is considered to minimize the material flow time which comprises processing time and waiting time. The capacity of the machine is considered as constraint for this problem. A case study problem of Far et al. (Sci Iranica 25 (2017), [1]) is considered in this paper. A discrete artificial bee colony algorithm is then proposed to solve the machine loading problem. Comparison of the results with those published in the literature indicates supremacy of the solutions obtained by the proposed algorithm for attempted model.