A Literature Review of the Iterated Greedy Algorithm in Permutation Flow-shop Scheduling Problems

This article is a literature review of iterated greedy (IG) applied to solving permutation flow-shop scheduling problem (PFSP) and distributed permutation flow-shop scheduling problem (DPFSP), which has profound and practical significance in job arrangement. Although various reviews of scheduling problems have been made, there are few review articles that focus on a certain algorithm. We first characterize the basic mathematical model of PFSP and DPFSP, as well as the Grantt chart to visualize a given solution. The article then provides a comprehensive review of the research development of IG applied in PFSP and DPFSP. In this progress, we focus on two major perspectives: (1) Classification and interpretation for the literature under a unified framework. (2) Unresolved issues and potential development based on a brief introduction of the algorithm. At the end of the review we also propose a brief introduction regarding the basic structure of iterated greedy algorithm. In the last part, the article leads a conclusion of the review and remark on the future development.