Abstract
The flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP) has been extensively researched over the past decade. However, the integration of preventive maintenance (PM), transportation times, and energy efficiency remains under-explored. This paper addresses the energy-efficient flexible job shop scheduling problem with preventive maintenance and transportation times (EFJSP-PMT). To minimize both makespan and total energy consumption, a multi-population optimization algorithm with adaptive strategy and competition (MPOA-ASC) is proposed, featuring distinct early and later evolution phases. In the early evolution phase, we develop a hybrid heuristic initialization method, a new population division strategy, an adaptive mechanism for crossover and mutation probabilities, and three specialized local search operators. In the later phase, a novel inter-population competition mechanism is introduced to optimize the allocation of computational resources and enhance convergence performance. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed MPOA-ASC significantly outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms in solving the EFJSP-PMT.
Keywords
Introduction
The flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP) is an extension of the classic job shop scheduling problem, with the core feature that operations can be processed on multiple optional machines with different processing times. FJSP requires simultaneous decision-making for machine allocation and operation sequencing, making it an NP-hard problem. Effective scheduling is a key factor in improving the efficiency of manufacturing systems.
Furthermore, excessive energy consumption has led to increased costs, low resource utilization, and environmental pollution, prompting enterprises to focus on energy efficiency in the production process. As a core component of manufacturing, effective scheduling can directly improve production efficiency and reduce energy consumption. Related research is no longer restricted to traditional economic objectives—such as machine load, completion time, and tardiness—but increasingly focuses on green indicators, including energy consumption and carbon emission. With the introduction of these factors, the complexity and difficulty of scheduling are greatly increased.
Given the NP-hard nature of EFJSP, intelligent optimization algorithms have emerged as a key methodology. Numerous studies have addressed standard and distributed EFJSP by optimizing makespan (
Regarding EFJSP with transportation constraints, existing research has increasingly integrated logistics into scheduling. Approaches include quality-diversity algorithms (Qin et al., 2025), deep reinforcement learning (Chen & Wu, 2026; Cheng et al., 2025), and multi-population co-evolutionary algorithms (MCEA) (Liu et al., 2024) to minimize
Similarly, FJSP considering preventive maintenance (PM) has been extensively investigated. Researchers have developed hybrid meta-heuristics, collaborative variable neighborhood search algorithms, and co-evolutionary frameworks to jointly optimize job scheduling and maintenance activities (An et al., 2023, 2024; Khoukhi et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2024c; Wocker et al., 2024; Wu et al., 2025; Yan et al., 2025; Zhang et al., 2024a; Zhao et al., 2025a, 2025b).
As stated above, existing research has considered various constraints such as setup times, machine eligibility and order cancellation. However, preventive maintenance and transportation have rarely been combined with energy efficiency. Energy, transportation, and preventive maintenance are common factors that frequently co-occur in real-world flexible job shops. Considering these three conditions in the FJSP yields highly practical scheduling solutions and represents an important research direction. Hence, we focus on EFJSP-PMT in this study.
Multi-population optimization algorithms (MPOAs) feature multiple parallel sub-populations that can adopt differentiated search processes. This architecture prevents the homogenization of search strategies and non-independent evolution, thereby maintaining high population diversity and enhancing the algorithm's search capability. MPOA has been extensively applied with promising results to various production scheduling problems (Jia et al., 2024; Wang et al., 2026b; Zhang et al., 2025c). It is a potential method for solving the EFJSP-PMT.
The contributions of this study are summarized below. (1) MPOA-ASC is developed to address EFJSP-PMT, which consists of early evolution and later evolution. (2) A new population division strategy is designed, an adaptive strategy for adjusting crossover and mutation probabilities is given, and three local search operators are developed. (3) A competition mechanism between sub-populations is introduced to assign computation resources reasonably and improve convergence performance.
The remaining parts of the paper are organized as follows. Section 2 describes the problem. MPOA-ASC for EFJSP-PMT is designed in Section 3. The experimental results are presented in Section 4. Conclusions and directions for future research are provided in the final section.
Problem Description and Mathematical Model
Before formulating the mathematical model for the EFJSP-PMT, it is necessary to establish a clear mathematical notation system. The relevant symbols, including the sets, indices, given parameters, and decision variables used throughout this study, are systematically defined and summarized in Table 1.
Related Parameters and Their Definitions.
Related Parameters and Their Definitions.
EFJSP-PMT is described as follows. There are n jobs
In addition, the following assumptions are adopted. (1) Each machine can process at most one operation at any given time. (2) A job cannot be processed on multiple machines simultaneously. (3) All operations are non-preemptive, i.e., they can not be interrupted once started. (4) There is an infinite capacity of transportation resources (e.g., AGVs or robots). Complex logistical factors such as specific routing paths, collision avoidance, and fleet scheduling are not considered in this model; only the deterministic transportation time between machines is integrated into the scheduling constraints.
The objectives of EFJSP-PMT are makespan and TEC which consists of processing energy (
By partitioning the global population into several sub-populations and facilitating parallel exploration across diverse regions of the solution space, MPOAs effectively maintain population diversity and mitigate the risk of premature convergence. However, despite their importance, the dynamic adaptation of search strategies guided by evolutionary states and the competitive interactions among sub-populations remain largely under-explored. To address these gaps, this paper develops a MPOA-ASC. As illustrated in Figure 1, the proposed framework incorporates distinct early and later evolutionary stages specifically tailored to solve the EFJSP-PMT.
Unlike generic metaheuristic frameworks, the design of MPOA-ASC is deeply driven by the inherent physical characteristics of the EFJSP-PMT. The integration of preventive maintenance (PM) and transportation times constraints creates a highly discontinuous scheduling landscape with severe bottlenecks and fragmented machine idle times. To effectively utilize these specific problem characteristics, MPOA-ASC incorporates problem-specific initialization rules, critical-path-based local search operators, and an adaptive competition mechanism to meticulously navigate the trade-off between makespan and TEC.
To clarify the algorithm flow depicted in Figure 1, the MPOA-ASC framework structurally begins with a hybrid triple-layer initialization. This is followed by a rank-based population division that assigns elite individuals to anchor distinct sub-populations. During the early evolution phase, each sub-population independently executes crossover and mutation operations, with their parameters adaptively controlled by a real-time ‘evolution quality’ metric. Subsequently, the algorithm enters the later evolution phase, where a global competition mechanism evaluates the normalized total fitness of all sub-populations, dynamically redistributing computational resources (sub-population sizes) to prevent stagnation before iterating until the termination criterion is met.
To clearly articulate the innovations of the proposed MPOA-ASC and differentiate it from existing multi-population frameworks, a structured methodological comparison is presented in Table 2. Unlike traditional methods that rely on static resource allocation and random population division, MPOA-ASC introduces a stage-based evolutionary architecture. It dynamically adjusts search strategies based on real-time evolution quality and employs a dynamic competition mechanism to optimize computational resource allocation.

Framework Diagram of MPOA-ASC.
Methodological Comparison Between Traditional MPOAs and the Proposed MPOA-ASC.
EFJSP-PMT consists of three sub-problems: scheduling, machine assignment and speed selection. A three-layer encoding representation is adopted, as presented in Figure 2. For OSV, the

A Schematic Diagram of Encoding.
To effectively balance global convergence and population diversity while addressing the trade-off between time efficiency and energy conservation, a hybrid heuristic initialization method is developed, as shown in Algorithm 2. The population Pop with N solutions is generated based on a specific probability distribution across the three encoding layers: OSV, MSV and SSV. MSV Layer: Comprehensive Load Balancing Strategies
The MSV layer determines the allocation of resources. To prevent premature convergence and ensure a high-quality starting front, three strategies are employed:
Improved Global Selection (GSA, 60%): This strategy evaluates the comprehensive cost of each candidate machine. To account for the variable speed levels in the SSV layer, the selection is performed using standardized parameters (at a median or standard speed level):
Local Selection Strategy (LSA, 30%): This focuses on machine workload balancing. For each operation, the machine with the minimum current cumulative workload is selected to minimize potential idle energy consumption.
Random Selection (RS, 10%): Machines are assigned randomly from the set of compatible machines SSV Layer: Energy-Efficiency Regulation Strategies
The SSV layer is initialized immediately following the MSV assignment. For a selected machine with speed levels
Minimum Processing Time Rule (40%): The maximum speed level
Maximum Energy Efficiency Rule (40%): This strategy targets the minimization of
Random Speed Selection (20%): Speed levels are chosen randomly to explore the intermediary regions of the Pareto front. OSV Layer: Bottleneck-Aware Sequencing Strategies
The OSV layer defines the execution sequence of the assigned operations:
Most Work Remaining (MWKR, 20%): To mitigate the impact of bottleneck jobs on the critical path, the total remaining processing time for each job
Random Permutation (80%): The majority of the OSV strings are generated via random permutations of the job indices. This ensures that the precedence constraints are satisfied while allowing the MPOA-ASC to explore a vast permutation space.
The fitness value of the solution
For MPOA, Pop is typically randomly divided into several sub-populations. Although simple, this method often leads to an uneven distribution of initial solution quality among sub-populations. Some sub-populations may coincidentally receive a concentration of high-quality individuals, causing premature convergence. In contrast, others might consist largely of low-quality individuals whose search direction deviates significantly from promising regions, thereby wasting substantial computation resources. To overcome the above shortcomings, a new population division method is designed, shown in Algorithm 3, where
Suppose
The
In MPOA-ASC, sub-populations exhibit distinct evolutionary states due to differences in initial distribution. The adoption of a search strategy should be aligned with its specific evolutionary state. In this paper, an adaptive adjustment strategy for crossover probability
The evolution quality
Selecting appropriate crossover and mutation operators is essential to achieve global search and avoid local optima. In this paper, the precedence operation crossover (POX) (Wang et al., 2026a) is implemented for the OSV part, and universal crossover (UX) (Wang et al., 2026a) is applied to the MSV and SSV, presented in Figures 3 and 4.

POX Operators.

Ux Operator.
Generic evolutionary operators often destroy the delicate machine-operation matching in highly constrained spaces. Therefore, to deeply utilize the inherent characteristics of the EFJSP-PMT, three specialized local search operators (Figure 5) are meticulously designed:

The Designed Local Search Operators.
LS1 (Critical Path Machine Reassignment): PM tasks and transportation times often create severe bottlenecks on the critical path. LS1 identifies the last completed operation on this critical path and transfers it to the machine with the absolute shortest completion time, directly attacking the makespan bottleneck.
LS2 (Critical Path Workload Balancing): to further utilize the workload distribution characteristics, LS2 randomly selects a critical operation and reassigns it to a faster machine, effectively alleviating congestion caused by maintenance windows.
LS3 (Energy-Aware Speed Adjustment): deeply utilizing the multi-speed feature of the problem, LS3 targets a non-critical operation and lowers its machine's speed level. This intelligently absorbs the fragmented idle gaps caused by preceding transportation delays, minimizing energy consumption without extending the overall makespan.
Algorithm 6 describes procedures of crossover and mutation, where
After crossover and mutation are performed,
In the proposed MPOA-ASC, the competition mechanism facilitates the autonomous redistribution of computational resources. Superior sub-populations are prioritized with expanded population sizes or extended iteration cycles, whereas under-performing ones are either restructured or eliminated to prevent stagnation. This strategy effectively mitigates resource expenditure on low-potential regions of the solution space, thereby accelerating global convergence. Furthermore, by preserving multiple successful evolutionary trajectories, the mechanism maintains high population diversity, prevents premature convergence, and sustains a robust dynamic balance between exploration and exploitation.
In this Section, this competitive framework is integrated into MPOA-ASC to ensure the rational allocation of computational resources. Unlike traditional static models, the numerical count and scale of sub-populations in our approach remain fluid and adaptive. The specific implementation of this competitive process is detailed in Algorithm 7.
The normalized total fitness
To prevent the optimal subpopulation from prematurely monopolizing all resources, which would lead to a sharp decline in population diversity and premature convergence, a vector Q is constructed.
The number
After the competition is finished, the crossover and mutation are executed as described in early evolution.
All experiments are coded in Python and run on a PC with an Intel Core i7-1260 CPU (2.10 GHz), 16.0 GB RAM, and a 64-bit Windows 11 operating system.
Instances, Metrics and Comparative Algorithms
In this study, we choose mk01-15 (Brandimarte, 1993), 01a-18a (Dauzère-Pérès & Paulli, 1997) and 21 instances from (Barnes & Chambers, 1996), which are designed for testing FJSP and extended by adding energy consumption, preventive maintenance and transportation times information.
To quantitatively assess the algorithm performance, three widely recognized metrics are employed in this study: Hypervolume (
The
As for the
Finally, the
A higher
In this paper, MPOA, QMOEA/D (Wang et al., 2026a), MCEA (Liu et al., 2024), EARL (Zhang et al., 2024d), IMOEA (Li et al., 2025a) are selected as comparative algorithms.
MPOA is designed as a baseline to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategies. In MPOA, the crossover and mutation probabilities for each sub-population remain fixed, and the competition mechanism is removed. The QMOEA/D is proposed by Wang et al. (Wang et al., 2026a) to solve low-carbon FJSP, aiming to minimize
The key parameters of MPOA-ASC are listed below: population size N, coefficient
Parameters of MPOA-ASC and Their Levels.
Parameters of MPOA-ASC and Their Levels.
The Orthogonal Array

Main Effect Plots of IGD and HV.
The best setting of MPOA-ASC is
In addition, empirical observations show that MPOA, EARL, QMOEA/D, and MCEA can fully converge within this timeframe. Thus, the uniform stopping condition for all algorithms is set to
IMOEA: population size
EARL: population size
QMOEA/D: crossover rate
MCEA: population size
To ensure a strictly fair and objective evaluation, special attention was given to standardizing the parameter tuning principles and establishing an equal computational budget across all evaluated algorithms. First, because differences in population sizes and internal operator complexities can significantly skew performance when measured by iteration counts, we discarded fixed generation limits in favor of a uniform maximum CPU time strategy. Specifically, the stopping condition for MPOA-ASC and all comparison algorithms (MPOA, EARL, IMOEA, QMOEA/D, and MCEA) was universally set to
Second, regarding parameter configurations, we ensured that no algorithm was disadvantaged by sub-optimal settings. The Taguchi method, utilizing an orthogonal array, was employed to rigorously determine the optimal parameters for the proposed MPOA-ASC. To maintain strict fairness, all comparison algorithms adopted the exact same Taguchi method to independently tune and finalize their respective best parameter settings (such as population size, crossover rate, and mutation rate). This principle ensures that the comparative results reflect the peak performance of each algorithm under their individually optimized configurations.
To reduce the effects of randomness, MPOA-ASC, MPOA, IMOEA, EARL, QMOEA/D and MCEA are executed independently 20 times for all test instances.
Since the true Pareto front
Performance Comparison of all Algorithms via IGD-Metric.
Performance Comparison of all Algorithms via IGD-Metric.
Performance Comparison of all Algorithms via HV-Metric.
Performance Comparison of all Algorithms via C-Metric.

Violin Plots of all Algorithms on Metrics IGD, HV and C.

Non-dominated Solution Distributions on mk05, 01a, 05a and mt10c1.

The Gantt Chart of a non-Dominated Solution Produced by MPOA-ASC on Instance 05a.
As shown in Tables 5–7, MPOA-ASC achieves superior results on metrics
Figures 7 and 8 are violin plots of all algorithms on metrics
In addition, the non-dominated solution distributions in Figure 8 visually corroborate the statistical findings. While competitive algorithms, particularly QMOEA/D, exhibit comparable performance in certain localized and central regions of the Pareto front, MPOA-ASC demonstrates distinct superiorities upon closer examination. First, MPOA-ASC consistently discovers better extreme solutions at the boundaries of the Pareto front (i.e., schedules with the absolute minimum makespan or the absolute minimum TEC). Second, the solution front generated by MPOA-ASC is generally positioned closer to the theoretical ideal point (the lower-left origin) across all four depicted instances (mk05, 01a, 05a, and mt10c1). Finally, MPOA-ASC maintains a more uniform and continuous spread of solutions, avoiding the sparse gaps often observed in the distributions of QMOEA/D and MCEA. This visual superiority in convergence and diversity is mathematically validated by the massive effect sizes (
Friedman Test and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test
The Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests are employed to assess variability differences among related samples. Tables 8 and 9 present the results of the Friedman test, where CN represents the number of instances. In Tables 8 and 9, the p-value is equal to 0, which indicates there are significant differences among all algorithms. Additionally, Figure 10 visually depicts notable variations among the algorithms. These results affirm that MPOA-ASC outperforms comparison algorithms.

Related-Samples Friedman's two-way Analysis of Variance by Ranks.
The IGD Results of the Friedman Test.
The HV Results of the Friedman Test.
The Wilcoxon signed-rank test, a widely adopted non-parametric statistical method, is employed to assess the significance of performance differences between MPOA-ASC and other comparison algorithms. The Wilcoxon test operates based on the ranks of differences between paired observations, allowing inferences about whether such differences occur by chance. The results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test at a 95% confidence level
Results Achieved by the Wilcoxon Test.
A significance level of
To rigorously measure the magnitude of the performance differences, Vargha and Delaney's
Vargha and Delaney's
Effect Sizes for IGD and HV Metrics.
Vargha and Delaney's
The massive statistical gap between MPOA-ASC and the baseline MPOA (
Furthermore, the distinct advantage of MPOA-ASC over generic algorithms such as QMOEA/D and MCEA can be attributed to its specialized handling of problem-specific constraints. The integration of preventive maintenance and transportation times creates a highly discontinuous and rugged fitness landscape. The three local search operators embedded in the early evolution phase explicitly target critical path operations and machine idle gaps, providing MPOA-ASC with a highly directed exploitation capability to minimize both makespan and TEC. Generic crossover and mutation operators employed by the comparison algorithms often disrupt these delicate machine-operation-speed combinations, leading to inferior solutions.
Finally, the robust HV metrics achieved by MPOA-ASC, with all
This paper presents a multi-population optimization algorithm with adaptive strategy and competition (MPOA-ASC) to address EFJSP-PMT. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed MPOA-ASC significantly outperforms state-of-the-art comparison algorithms across the majority of test instances.
The core contributions of this study are summarized as follows. We investigated the EFJSP-PMT, a widespread yet complex problem in modern industry that integrates energy efficiency with maintenance and logistics constraints. A dual-phase evolutionary framework (early and later evolution) was developed. The early phase features a novel population division strategy, adaptive parameter control for crossover and mutation, and three tailored local search operators. The later phase introduces a sub-population competition mechanism to dynamically allocate computational resources and accelerate convergence.
While the proposed approach achieves superior results in a static environment, certain limitations remain. Specifically, dynamic uncertainties inherent in real-world manufacturing—such as unexpected job delays and machine breakdowns—were not considered. Furthermore, as our model primarily addresses transportation times, it neglects the constraints of finite transportation resources, such as limited AGV fleet sizes, battery charging cycles, and complex routing paths. Future research will extend the EFJSP-PMT framework to include factors like rework, operation sequence flexibility, and the joint optimization of job scheduling with dynamic AGV routing.
Footnotes
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the Anhui Provincial University Outstanding Youth Project in Humanities and Social Sciences (Grant No. 2024AH020022) and the Anhui Province Social Science Innovation and Development Research Project (Grant No. 2024CX067).
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Anhui Province Social Science Innovation and Development Research Project, Anhui Provincial University Outstanding Youth Project in Humanities and Social Sciences, (grant number 2024CX067, 2024AH020022).
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
