A Stochastic Optimization Approach of Flow Shop Sequencing Problem for On-time Delivery of Precast Components

Recently, the flow shop sequencing problem in precast plants has been witnessing remarkable interest from many researchers. This paper contributes to recent literature by providing a simulation-based optimization approach to solve the precast flow shop sequencing problem taking into account the uncertainty of processing times of precast production operations. The proposed approach is developed by integrating a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model, which is built to capture the realistic features of precast production activities, and OptQuest® to find the optimum sequencing of Precast Components (PCs). The proposed approach is validated against another approach from literature. In addition, its practicability is put to the test by applying the proposed approach to a real case study. The obtained results indicated that pre-casters can use this approach to attain better PCs sequences than that based on a rule of thumb.