Minimization of Rental Cost in Three-Stage Scheduling under Fuzzy Environment with Equivalent Job

The present paper explores the mathematical model of a restricted n x 3 flow shop scheduling in which processing times of jobs are in trapezoidal fuzzy numbers and follows some specified rental policy. The equivalent job block concept is being included in our study.

The objective of our study is to find the optimal sequence of jobs which minimize the total rental cost of the machines. An algorithm has been obtained by using heuristic approach. A lemma is provided to support the heuristic technique. The algorithm is made clear through numerical illustration with graphical representation. The model finds its applications in various production concerns, industries and real world situations.