Energy scheduling problem with no-wait/blocking constraints

In the energy-intensive sector, energy consumption has gained great attention, because of the increasing of energy costs and environmental implications. The optimization of production scheduling in these firms becomes a strategic key in the energy costs reduction. This study focuses on the scheduling optimization of an inflexible system consisting of a two-machine flow-shop without any buffer in between. An algorithm for addressing the no-wait/blocking constrained problem is introduced with the aim of minimizing the total energy cost of the system. The proposed algorithm is applied to a real industrial case and the main results are shown.