Heuristics for scheduling in flowshops and flowline-based manufacturing cells to minimize the sum of weighted flowtime and weighted tardiness of jobs

The problem of scheduling in two different types of flowshops (all jobs available at time zero, different job availability times known a priori) and in flowline-based manufacturing cells is considered with the objective of minimizing the sum of weighted flowtime and weighted tardiness of jobs. First, heuristic preference relations are developed by the consideration of lower bounds on the completion times, operation due-dates, and weights for holding and tardiness of jobs. A heuristic algorithm for scheduling is then proposed by making use of the heuristic preference relations. Two more heuristic algorithms are developed by implementing an improvement scheme to enhance the quality of the solution given by the first heuristic algorithm. The proposed and the existing heuristics are evaluated with respect to the three problem classes under consideration by solving a large number of randomly generated problems. The results of an extensive computational investigation for various problem sizes are presented. It has been observed that all three proposed heuristics perform better than the existing heuristics in giving a solution of superior quality and that the first proposed heuristic yields a good solution by requiring a negligible CPU time. In addition, an experimental investigation is carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the improvement scheme when implemented in the existing heuristics, and also the effectiveness of heuristics based on simulated annealing. The results are discussed in detail.     

Makespan minimization subject to flowtime optimality on identical parallel machines

We consider the identical parallel machine problem with makespan minimization subject to minimum total flowtime. First, we develop an optimal algorithm to the identical parallel machine problem with the objective of minimizing makespan. To improve the computational efficiency, two implementation techniques, the lower bound calculation and the job replacement rule, are applied. Based on the algorithm, an optimal algorithm, using new lower bounds, to the considered problem is developed. The result of this study can also be used to solve the bicriteria problem of minimizing the weighted sum of makespan and mean flowtime. Computational experiments are conducted up to six machines and 1000 jobs. Although the proposed algorithm has an exponential time complexity, the computational results show that it is efficient to find the optimal solution.     

Minimizing the weighted sum of maximum earliness and maximum tardiness costs on a single machine with periodic preventive maintenance

We consider the problem of scheduling a set of jobs on a single machine against a common and restrictive due date. In particular, we are interested in the problem of minimizing the weighted sum of maximum earliness and maximum tardiness costs. This kind of objective function is related to the just-in-time environment where penalties, such as storage cost and additional charges for late delivery, should be avoided. First we present a mixed integer linear model for the problem without availability constraints and we prove that this model can be reduced to a polynomial-time model. Secondly, we suppose that the machine undergoes a periodic preventive maintenance. We present then a second mixed integer linear model to solve the problem to optimality. Although the latter problem can be solved to optimality for small instances, we show that the problem reduces to the one-dimensional bin packing problem. Computational results show that the proposed algorithm best fit decreasing performs well.     

A multi-objective facility location model with batch arrivals: two parameter-tuned meta-heuristic algorithms

Many research works in mathematical modeling of the facility location problem have been carried out in discrete and continuous optimization area to obtain the optimum number of required facilities along with the relevant allocation processes. This paper proposes a new multi-objective facility-location problem within the batch arrival queuing framework. Three objective functions are considered: (I) minimizing the weighted sum of the waiting and the traveling times, (II) minimizing the maximum idle time pertinent to each facility, and (III) minimizing the total cost associated with the opened facilities. In this way, the best combination of the facilities is determined in the sense of economical, equilibrium, and enhancing service quality viewpoints. As the model is shown strongly NP-hard, two meta-heuristic algorithms, namely genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA) are proposed to solve the model. Not only new coding is developed in these solution algorithms, but also a random search algorithm is proposed to justify the efficiency of both algorithms. Since the solution-quality of all meta-heuristic algorithms severely depends on their parameters, design of experiments and response surface methodologies have been utilized to calibrate the parameters of both algorithms. Finally, computational results obtained by implementing both algorithms on several problems of different sizes demonstrate the performances of the proposed methodology.     

分布式估计算法在考虑差异工件的并行批处理机调度中的应用

论文考虑包含差异工件的并行批处理机调度问题，优化目标是最小化制造跨度.在不违背机器容量的限制下，所有工件需要被分成不同的批次，然后被安排在机器上进行加工.首先根据问题提出一个混合整数规划模型，并提出一个下界；采用FF-LPT规则实现对工件的分批和排序；然后提出基于4种更新机制的分布式估计算法（EDA）来对问题求解.最后通过实验对各类规模不同的算例进行仿真，并将结果和模拟退火算法（SA）、遗传算法（GA）作对比，验证了算法的有效性.     

A water-flow algorithm for flexible flow shop scheduling with intermediate buffers

We investigate the flexible flow shop scheduling problem with limited or unlimited intermediate buffers. A common objective of the problem is to find a production schedule that minimizes the completion time of jobs. Other objectives that we also consider are minimizing the total weighted flow time of jobs and minimizing the total weighted tardiness time of jobs. We propose a water-flow algorithm to solve this scheduling problem. The algorithm is inspired by the hydrological cycle in meteorology and the erosion phenomenon in nature. In the algorithm, we combine the amount of precipitation and its falling force to form a flexible erosion capability. This helps the erosion process of the algorithm to focus on exploiting promising regions strongly. To initiate the algorithm, we use a constructive procedure to obtain a seed permutation. We also use an improvement procedure for constructing a complete schedule from a permutation that represents the sequence of jobs in the first stage of the scheduling problem. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, we use benchmark instances taken from the literature and randomly generated instances of the scheduling problem. The computational results demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithm. We have also obtained several improved solutions for the benchmark instances using the proposed algorithm. We further illustrate the algorithm’s capability for solving problems in practical applications by applying it to a maltose syrup production problem.     

Minimizing makespan in a flow shop with two batch-processing machines using simulated annealing

This paper aims at minimizing the makespan of two batch-processing machines in a flow shop. The processing times and the sizes of the jobs are known and non-identical. The machines can process a batch as long as its capacity is not exceeded. The processing time of a batch is the longest processing time among all the jobs in that batch. The problem under study is NP-hard for makespan objective. Consequently, a heuristic based on Johnson's algorithm and a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is proposed. Random instances were generated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. The results obtained from SA were compared with the proposed heuristic and a commercial solver. The SA outperformed both the heuristic and the commercial solver. On larger problem instances, the heuristic outperformed the commercial solver.     

Scheduling in dynamic assembly job-shops to minimize the sum of weighted earliness,weighted tardiness and weighted flowtime of jobs

In many manufacturing systems, jobs that are completed early are held as finished-goods inventory until their due-dates, and hence we incur earliness costs. Similarly, jobs that are completed after their due-dates incur penalty. The objective in such situations would, therefore, be to meet the due-dates of the respective jobs as closely as possible, and consequently minimize the sum of earliness and tardiness of jobs because earliness and tardiness of jobs greatly influence the performance of a schedule with respect to cost. In addition, a job incurs holding cost from the time of its arrival until its completion. Most studies on scheduling in such manufacturing systems assume unit earliness cost, unit tardiness cost and unit holding cost of a job. However, in reality such an assumption need not always hold and it is quite possible that there exist different costs of earliness, tardiness and holding for different jobs. In addition, most studies on job-shop scheduling assume that jobs are independent and that no assembly operations exist. The current study addresses the problem of scheduling in dynamic assembly job-shops (i.e. shops that manufacture multi-level jobs) with the consideration of jobs having different earliness, tardiness and holding costs. An attempt is made in this paper to present dispatching rules by incorporating the relative costs of earliness, tardiness and holding of jobs in the form of scalar weights. In the first phase of the study, relative costs (or weights for) earliness and tardiness of jobs are considered, and the dispatching rules are presented in order to minimize the sum of weighted earliness and weighted tardiness of jobs. In the second phase of the study, the objective considered is the minimization of the sum of weighted earliness, weighted tardiness and weighted flowtime of jobs, and the dispatching rules are presented by incorporating the relative costs of earliness, tardiness and flowtime of jobs. Simulation studies have been conducted separately for both phases of the current study, the performance of the scheduling rules have been observed independently, and the results of the simulation study have been reported. The proposed rules are found to be effective in minimizing the mean and maximum values of the measures of performance.     

Scheduling in dynamic assembly job-shops to minimize the sum of weighted earliness,weighted tardiness and weighted flowtime of jobs

In many manufacturing systems, jobs that are completed early are held as finished-goods inventory until their due-dates, and hence we incur earliness costs. Similarly, jobs that are completed after their due-dates incur penalty. The objective in such situations would, therefore, be to meet the due-dates of the respective jobs as closely as possible, and consequently minimize the sum of earliness and tardiness of jobs because earliness and tardiness of jobs greatly influence the performance of a schedule with respect to cost. In addition, a job incurs holding cost from the time of its arrival until its completion. Most studies on scheduling in such manufacturing systems assume unit earliness cost, unit tardiness cost and unit holding cost of a job. However, in reality such an assumption need not always hold and it is quite possible that there exist different costs of earliness, tardiness and holding for different jobs. In addition, most studies on job-shop scheduling assume that jobs are independent and that no assembly operations exist. The current study addresses the problem of scheduling in dynamic assembly job-shops (i.e. shops that manufacture multi-level jobs) with the consideration of jobs having different earliness, tardiness and holding costs. An attempt is made in this paper to present dispatching rules by incorporating the relative costs of earliness, tardiness and holding of jobs in the form of scalar weights. In the first phase of the study, relative costs (or weights for) earliness and tardiness of jobs are considered, and the dispatching rules are presented in order to minimize the sum of weighted earliness and weighted tardiness of jobs. In the second phase of the study, the objective considered is the minimization of the sum of weighted earliness, weighted tardiness and weighted flowtime of jobs, and the dispatching rules are presented by incorporating the relative costs of earliness, tardiness and flowtime of jobs. Simulation studies have been conducted separately for both phases of the current study, the performance of the scheduling rules have been observed independently, and the results of the simulation study have been reported. The proposed rules are found to be effective in minimizing the mean and maximum values of the measures of performance.     

Single-machine group scheduling with resource allocation and learning effect

This paper addresses single-machine scheduling problems under the consideration of learning effect and resource allocation in a group technology environment. In the proposed model of this paper the actual processing times of jobs depend on the job position, the group position, and the amount of resource allocated to them concurrently. Learning effect and two resource allocation functions are examined for minimizing the weighted sum of makespan and total resource cost, and the weighted sum of total completion time and total resource cost. We show that the problems for minimizing the weighted sum of makespan and total resource cost remain polynomially solvable. We also prove that the problems for minimizing the weighted sum of total completion time and total resource cost have polynomial solutions under certain conditions.     

A note on a single machine scheduling problem with generalized total tardiness objective function

In this note, we consider a single machine scheduling problem with generalized total tardiness objective function. A pseudo-polynomial time solution algorithm is proposed for a special case of this problem. Moreover, we present a new graphical algorithm for another special case, which corresponds to the classical problem of minimizing the weighted number of tardy jobs on a single machine. The latter algorithm improves the complexity of an existing pseudo-polynomial algorithm by Lawler. Computational results are presented for both special cases considered.     

Flowshop scheduling problems with transportation or deterioration between the batching and single machines

In this paper, we consider two new types of the two-machine flowshop scheduling problems where a batching machine is followed by a single machine. The first type is that normal jobs with transportation between machines are scheduled on the batching and single machines. The second type is that normal jobs are processed on the batching machine while deteriorating jobs are scheduled on the single machine. For the first type, we formulate the problem to minimize the makespan as a mixed integer programming model and prove that it is strongly NP-hard. Furthermore, a heuristic algorithm along with a worst case error bound is derived and the computational experiments are also carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic algorithm. For the second type, the two objectives are considered. For the problem with minimizing the makespan, we find an optimal polynomial algorithm. For the problem with minimizing the sum of completion time, we show that it is strongly NP-hard and propose an optimal polynomial algorithm for its special case.     

An MO‐GVNS algorithm for solving a multiobjective hybrid flow shop scheduling problem

This paper addresses the multiobjective hybrid flow shop (MOHFS) scheduling problem. In the MOHFS problem considered here, we have a set of jobs that must be performed in a set of stages. At each stage, we have a set of unrelated parallel machines. Some jobs may skip stages. The evaluation criteria are the minimizations of makespan, the weighted sum of the tardiness, and the weighted sum of the earliness. For solving it, an algorithm based on the multiobjective general variable neighborhood search (MO‐GVNS) metaheuristic, named adapted MO‐GVNS, is proposed. This work also presents and compares the results obtained by the adapted MO‐GVNS with those of four other algorithms: multiobjective reduced variable neighborhood search, nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA‐II), and NSGA‐III, and another MO‐GVNS from the literature. The results were evaluated based on the Hypervolume, Epsilon, and Spacing metrics, and statistically validated by the Levene test and confidence interval charts. The results showed the efficiency of the proposed algorithm for solving the MOHFS problem.     

Exact and parallel metaheuristic algorithms for the single processor total weighted completion time scheduling problem with the sum-of-processing-time based models

In this paper, the single processor scheduling problem to minimize the total weighted completion times is analysed, where the processing times of jobs are described by functions dependent on the sum of the normal processing times of previously processed jobs, which can model learning or aging (deteriorating) effects. We construct the exact pseudopolynomial time algorithm based on the dynamic programming, which solves the problem, where the processing time of each job is described by an arbitrary stepwise function. Moreover, the parallel metaheuristic algorithms are provided for the general version of the problem with arbitrary sum-of-processing time based models. The efficiency of the proposed algorithms is evaluated during numerical analysis.     

Electromagnetism-like mechanism and simulated annealing algorithms for flowshop scheduling problems minimizing the total weighted tardiness and makespan

This paper presents an efficient meta-heuristic algorithm based on electromagnetism-like mechanism (EM), in which has been successfully implemented in a few combinatorial problems. We propose the EM for scheduling the flow shop problem that minimizes the makespan and total weighted tardiness and considers transportation times between machines and stage skipping (i.e., some jobs may not need to be processed on all the machines). To show the efficiency of this proposed algorithm, we also apply simulated annealing (SA) and some other well-recognized constructive heuristics, such as SPT, NEH, (g/2, g/2) Johnson’ rule, EWDD, SLACK, and NEH_EWDD for the given problems. To evaluate the performance and robustness of our proposed EM, we experiment a number of test problems. Our computational results show that our proposed EM in almost all cases outperforms SA and other foregoing heuristics applied to this paper.     

A New Algorithm To Solve Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs)

Efficient Resource management has a direct influence on business performance and profitability. Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) considered in this paper are resource management problems where the aim is to use the limited number of resources to a large number of jobs so that the maximum number of jobs can be completed with minimum cost. A VRP consists of a workforce of maintenance engineers and a set of geographically distributed customers requiring certain services. The problem is complicated by incorporating certain technological and temporal constraints. The objective is to maximize the amount of work done measured in terms of total number of jobs completed and to minimize the total distance travelled by all the engineers. The solution to a VRP is a list of engineers and for each engineer a tour consisting of an ordered list of services to be completed by him under the given constraints. These Problems belong to the class of NP-Complete problems. The stochastic techniques such as Hill-Climbing (HC), Tabu Search (TS), Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) are found to be suitable for solving these problems efficiently. It is found empirically that out of these SA gives good results for VRPs. But in some cases it also gives poor quality results. This happens due to not allocating intelligently the unallocated jobs in SA in subsequent iterations. A new algorithm is proposed to solve VRPs in this paper. This is achieved by allocating unallocated jobs intelligently in SA. The proposed algorithm is tested empirically on a number of randomly generated VRPs. Three types of VRPs considered are over resourced, under resourced and critically resourced VRPs. In almost all cases, the proposed algorithm completes a large number of jobs with minimum cost in comparison with SA.     

总变差正则化断层图像重建的解耦Bregman迭代算法

在断层重建的很多工程应用中,由于低剂量以及成像硬件等原因,经常需要在测量数据不充分的情况下去重建图像。基于图像分段光滑的假设,提出采用误差的加权范数作为数据保真项,TV（total variation）作为正则项的断层图像重建模型。该模型求解时,首先通过引入代理函数将原问题解耦为残差的加权范数最小化和加权范数TV去噪这两个子问题;然后采用了Chambolle的对偶空间正交投影法的框架对加权范数TV去噪问题进行求解,避免了由于TV项在不可导处所带来的计算不稳定;最后,为了提高收敛速度并且避免由正则化参数选取所引起的数值不稳定,引入Bregman方法,给出该模型的快速迭代算法。在扇形束少角度欠采样的条件下,对理想情况和高斯噪声情况下进行仿真测试,并同多种算法进行了比较。实验结果表明,该算法重建效果好,收敛速度快。     

Exact and heuristic algorithms for the aerial refueling parallel machine scheduling problem with due date-to-deadline window and ready times

The Aerial Refueling Scheduling Problem (ARSP) can be defined as determining the refueling completion times for fighter aircrafts (jobs) on multiple tankers (machines) to minimize the total weighted tardiness. ARSP can be modeled as a parallel machine scheduling with ready times and due date-to-deadline window to minimize total weighted tardiness. ARSP assumes that the jobs have different ready times and a due date-to-deadline window between refueling due date and a deadline to return without refueling. In this paper, we first formulate the ARSP as a mixed integer programming model. The objective function is a piece-wise tardiness cost that takes into account due date-to-deadline windows and job priorities. Since ARSP is NP-hard, two heuristics are proposed to obtain solutions in reasonable computation times, namely (1) modified ATC rule (MATC), (2) a simulated annealing method (SA). The proposed heuristic algorithms are tested in terms of solution quality and CPU time through computational experiments with data randomly generated to represent aerial refueling operations of an in-theater air operation. Solutions provided by both algorithms were compared to optimal solutions for problems with up to 12 jobs and to each other for larger problems with up to 60 jobs. The results show that, MATC is more likely to outperform SA especially when the problem size increases, although it has significantly worse performance than SA in terms of deviation from optimal solution for small size problems. Moreover CPU time performance of MATC is significantly better than SA in both cases.     

Permutation flowshop problems with bi-criterion makespan and total completion time objective and position-weighted learning effects

In this paper, we study the problem of minimizing the weighted sum of makespan and total completion time in a permutation flowshop where the processing times are supposed to vary according to learning effects. The processing time of a job is a function of the sum of the logarithms of the processing times of the jobs already processed and its position in the sequence. We present heuristic algorithms, which are modified from the optimal schedules for the corresponding single machine scheduling problem and analyze their worst-case error bound. We also adopt an existing algorithm as well as a branch-and-bound algorithm for the general m-machine permutation flowshop problem. For evaluation of the performance of the algorithms, computational experiments are performed on randomly generated test problems.     

A simulating annealing algorithm to solve the green vehicle routing & scheduling problem with hierarchical objectives and weighted tardiness

We present a green vehicle routing and scheduling problem (GVRSP) considering general time-dependent traffic conditions with the primary objective of minimizing CO₂ emissions and weighted tardiness. A new mathematical formulation is proposed to describe the GVRSP with hierarchical objectives and weighted tardiness. The proposed formulation is an alternative formulation of the GVRSP in the way that a vehicle is allowed to travel an arc in multiple time periods. The schedule of a vehicle is determined based on the actual distance that the vehicle travels each arc in each time period instead of the time point when the vehicle departs from each node. Thereby, more general time dependent traffic patterns can be considered in the model. The proposed formulation is studied using various objectives functions, such as minimizing the total CO₂ emissions, the total travel distance, and the total travel time. Computational results show that up to 50% reduction in CO₂ emissions can be achieved with average reductions of 12% and 28% compared to distance-oriented solutions and travel-time-oriented solutions, respectively. In addition, a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is introduced to solve large-sized problem instances. To reduce the search space, the SA algorithm searches only for vehicle routes and rough schedules, and a straightforward heuristic procedure is used to determine near-optimal detailed schedules for a given set of routes. The performance of the SA algorithm is tested on large-sized problems with up to 100 nodes and 10 time periods.