Evolutionary algorithms for multi-objective flexible job shop cell scheduling

The multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling in a cellular manufacturing environment is a challenging real-world problem. This recently introduced scheduling problem variant considers exceptional parts, intercellular moves, intercellular transportation times, sequence-dependent family setup times, and recirculation requiring minimization of makespan and total tardiness, simultaneously. A previous study shows that the exact solver based on mixed-integer nonlinear programming model fails to find an optimal solution to each of the ‘medium’ to ‘large’ size instances considering even the simplified version of the problem. In this study, we present evolutionary algorithms for solving that bi-objective problem and apply genetic and memetic algorithms that use three different scalarization methods, including weighted sum, conic, and tchebycheff. The performance of all evolutionary algorithms with various configurations is investigated across forty-three benchmark instances from ‘small’ to ‘large’ size including a large real-world problem instance. The experimental results show that the transgenerational memetic algorithm using weighted sum outperforms the rest producing the best-known results for almost all bi-objective flexible job shop cell scheduling instances, in overall

Multi-objective enhanced memetic algorithm for green job shop scheduling with uncertain times

The quest for sustainability has arrived to the manufacturing world, with the emergence of a research field known as green scheduling. Traditional performance objectives now co-exist with energy-saving ones. In this work, we tackle a job shop scheduling problem with the double goal of minimising energy consumption during machine idle time and minimising the project’s makespan. We also consider uncertainty in processing times, modelled with fuzzy numbers. We present a multi-objective optimisation model of the problem and we propose a new enhanced memetic algorithm that combines a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm with three procedures that exploit the problem-specific available knowledge. Experimental results validate the proposed method with respect to hypervolume, -indicator and empirical attaintment functions

A hybrid algorithm for flexible job-shop scheduling problem with setup times

[EN] Job-shop scheduling problem is one of the most important fields in manufacturing optimization where a set of n jobs must be processed on a set of m specified machines. Each job consists of a specific set of operations, which have to be processed according to a given order. The Flexible Job Shop problem (FJSP) is a generalization of the above-mentioned problem, where each operation can be processed by a set of resources and has a processing time depending on the resource used. The FJSP problems cover two difficulties, namely, machine assignment problem and operation sequencing problem. This paper addresses the flexible job-shop scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times to minimize two kinds of objectives function: makespan and bi-criteria objective function. For that, we propose a hybrid algorithm based on genetic algorithm (GA) and variable neighbourhood search (VNS) to solve this problem. To evaluate the performance of our algorithm, we compare our results with other methods existing in literature. All the results show the superiority of our algorithm against the available ones in terms of solution quality.Azzouz, A.; Ennigrou, M.; Ben Said, L. (2017). A hybrid algorithm for flexible job-shop scheduling problem with setup times. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 5(1):23-30. doi:10.4995/ijpme.2017.6618SWORD233051Allahverdi, A. (2015). The third comprehensive survey on scheduling problems with setup times/costs. European Journal of Operational Research, 246(2), 345-378. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2015.04.004Azzouz, A., Ennigrou, M., & Jlifi, B. (2015). Diversifying TS using GA in Multi-agent System for Solving Flexible Job Shop Problem. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics. doi:10.5220/0005511000940101Azzouz, A., Ennigrou, M., Jlifi, B., & Ghedira, K. (2012). Combining Tabu Search and Genetic Algorithm in a Multi-agent System for Solving Flexible Job Shop Problem. 2012 11th Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence. doi:10.1109/micai.2012.12Bagheri, A., & Zandieh, M. (2011). Bi-criteria flexible job-shop scheduling with sequence-dependent setup times—Variable neighborhood search approach. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 30(1), 8-15. doi:10.1016/j.jmsy.2011.02.004Brandimarte, P. (1993). Routing and scheduling in a flexible job shop by tabu search. Annals of Operations Research, 41(3), 157-183. doi:10.1007/bf02023073Cheung, W., & Zhou, H. (2001). Annals of Operations Research, 107(1/4), 65-81. doi:10.1023/a:1014990729837Fattahi, P., Saidi Mehrabad, M., & Jolai, F. (2007). Mathematical modeling and heuristic approaches to flexible job shop scheduling problems. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 18(3), 331-342. doi:10.1007/s10845-007-0026-8González, M. A., Rodriguez Vela, C., Varela, R. (2013). An efficient memetic algorithm for the flexible job shop with setup times. In Twenty-Third International Conference on Automated, pp. 91-99.Hurink, J., Jurisch, B., & Thole, M. (1994). Tabu search for the job-shop scheduling problem with multi-purpose machines. OR Spektrum, 15(4), 205-215. doi:10.1007/bf01719451Imanipour, N. (2006). Modeling&Solving Flexible Job Shop Problem With Sequence Dependent Setup Times. 2006 International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management. doi:10.1109/icsssm.2006.320680KIM, S. C., & BOBROWSKI, P. M. (1994). Impact of sequence-dependent setup time on job shop scheduling performance. International Journal of Production Research, 32(7), 1503-1520. doi:10.1080/00207549408957019Moghaddas, R., Houshmand, M. (2008). Job-shop scheduling problem with sequence dependent setup times. Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists,2, 978-988.Mousakhani, M. (2013). Sequence-dependent setup time flexible job shop scheduling problem to minimise total tardiness. International Journal of Production Research, 51(12), 3476-3487. doi:10.1080/00207543.2012.746480Naderi, B., Zandieh, M., & Fatemi Ghomi, S. M. T. (2008). Scheduling sequence-dependent setup time job shops with preventive maintenance. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 43(1-2), 170-181. doi:10.1007/s00170-008-1693-0Najid, N. M., Dauzere-Peres, S., & Zaidat, A. (s. f.). A modified simulated annealing method for flexible job shop scheduling problem. IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. doi:10.1109/icsmc.2002.1176334Nouiri, M., Bekrar, A., Jemai, A., Niar, S., & Ammari, A. C. (2015). An effective and distributed particle swarm optimization algorithm for flexible job-shop scheduling problem. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 29(3), 603-615. doi:10.1007/s10845-015-1039-3Oddi, A., Rasconi, R., Cesta, A., & Smith, S. (2011). Applying iterative flattening search to the job shop scheduling problem with alternative resources and sequence dependent setup times. In COPLAS 2011 Proceedings of the Workshopon Constraint Satisfaction Techniques for Planning and Scheduling Problems, pp. 15-22.Pezzella, F., Morganti, G., & Ciaschetti, G. (2008). A genetic algorithm for the Flexible Job-shop Scheduling Problem. Computers & Operations Research, 35(10), 3202-3212. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2007.02.014Sadrzadeh, A. (2013). Development of Both the AIS and PSO for Solving the Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 38(12), 3593-3604. doi:10.1007/s13369-013-0625-ySaidi-Mehrabad, M., & Fattahi, P. (2006). Flexible job shop scheduling with tabu search algorithms. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 32(5-6), 563-570. doi:10.1007/s00170-005-0375-4Vilcot, G., & Billaut, J.-C. (2011). A tabu search algorithm for solving a multicriteria flexible job shop scheduling problem. International Journal of Production Research, 49(23), 6963-6980. doi:10.1080/00207543.2010.526016Shi-Jin, W., Bing-Hai, Z., & Li-Feng, X. (2008). A filtered-beam-search-based heuristic algorithm for flexible job-shop scheduling problem. International Journal of Production Research, 46(11), 3027-3058. doi:10.1080/00207540600988105Wang, S., & Yu, J. (2010). An effective heuristic for flexible job-shop scheduling problem with maintenance activities. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 59(3), 436-447. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2010.05.016Zandieh, M., Yazdani, M., Gholami, M., & Mousakhani, M. (2009). A Simulated Annealing Algorithm for Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling Problem. Journal of Applied Sciences, 9(4), 662-670. doi:10.3923/jas.2009.662.670Zambrano Rey, G., Bekrar, A., Prabhu, V., & Trentesaux, D. (2014). Coupling a genetic algorithm with the distributed arrival-time control for the JIT dynamic scheduling of flexible job-shops. International Journal of Production Research, 52(12), 3688-3709. doi:10.1080/00207543.2014.881575Zhang, G., Gao, L., & Shi, Y. (2011). An effective genetic algorithm for the flexible job-shop scheduling problem. Expert Systems with Applications, 38(4), 3563-3573. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2010.08.145Zhang, G., Shao, X., Li, P., & Gao, L. (2009). An effective hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm for multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling problem. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 56(4), 1309-1318. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2008.07.021Zhou, Y., Li, B., & Yang, J. (2005). Study on job shop scheduling with sequence-dependent setup times using biological immune algorithm. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 30(1-2), 105-111. doi:10.1007/s00170-005-0022-0Ziaee, M. (2013). A heuristic algorithm for solving flexible job shop scheduling problem. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 71(1-4), 519-528. doi:10.1007/s00170-013-5510-zZribi, N., Kacem, I., Kamel, A. E., & Borne, P. (2007). Assignment and Scheduling in Flexible Job-Shops by Hierarchical Optimization. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part C (Applications and Reviews), 37(4), 652-661. doi:10.1109/tsmcc.2007.89749

Using real-time information to reschedule jobs in a flowshop with variable processing times

Versión revisada. Embargo 36 mesesIn a time where detailed, instantaneous and accurate information on shop-floor status is becoming available in many manufacturing companies due to Information Technologies initiatives such as Smart Factory or Industry 4.0, a question arises regarding when and how this data can be used to improve scheduling decisions. While it is acknowledged that a continuous rescheduling based on the updated information may be beneficial as it serves to adapt the schedule to unplanned events, this rather general intuition has not been supported by a thorough experimentation, particularly for multi-stage manufacturing systems where such continuous rescheduling may introduce a high degree of nervousness in the system and deteriorates its performance. In order to study this research problem, in this paper we investigate how real-time information on the completion times of the jobs in a flowshop with variable processing times can be used to reschedule the jobs. In an exhaustive computational experience, we show that rescheduling policies pay off as long as the variability of the processing times is not very high, and only if the initially generated schedule is of good quality. Furthermore, we propose several rescheduling policies to improve the performance of continuous rescheduling while greatly reducing the frequency of rescheduling. One of these policies, based on the concept of critical path of a flowshop, outperforms the rest of policies for a wide range of scenarios.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación DPI2016-80750-

An Effective Multi-Population Based Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Job Shop Scheduling Problem

The job shop scheduling problem is a well known practical planning problem in the manufacturing sector. We have considered the JSSP with an objective of minimizing makespan. In this paper, a multi-population based hybrid genetic algorithm is developed for solving the JSSP. The population is divided in several groups at first and the hybrid algorithm is applied to the disjoint groups. Then the migration operator is used. The proposed approach, MP-HGA, have been compared with other algorithms for job-shop scheduling and evaluated with satisfactory results on a set of JSSPs derived from classical job-shop scheduling benchmarks. We have solved 15 benchmark problems and compared results obtained with a number of algorithms established in the literature. The experimental results show that MP-HGA could gain the best known makespan in 13 out of 15 problems

A Memetic Algorithm with Reinforcement Learning for Sociotechnical Production Scheduling

The following interdisciplinary article presents a memetic algorithm with applying deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for solving practically oriented dual resource constrained flexible job shop scheduling problems (DRC-FJSSP). From research projects in industry, we recognize the need to consider flexible machines, flexible human workers, worker capabilities, setup and processing operations, material arrival times, complex job paths with parallel tasks for bill of material (BOM) manufacturing, sequence-dependent setup times and (partially) automated tasks in human-machine-collaboration. In recent years, there has been extensive research on metaheuristics and DRL techniques but focused on simple scheduling environments. However, there are few approaches combining metaheuristics and DRL to generate schedules more reliably and efficiently. In this paper, we first formulate a DRC-FJSSP to map complex industry requirements beyond traditional job shop models. Then we propose a scheduling framework integrating a discrete event simulation (DES) for schedule evaluation, considering parallel computing and multicriteria optimization. Here, a memetic algorithm is enriched with DRL to improve sequencing and assignment decisions. Through numerical experiments with real-world production data, we confirm that the framework generates feasible schedules efficiently and reliably for a balanced optimization of makespan (MS) and total tardiness (TT). Utilizing DRL instead of random metaheuristic operations leads to better results in fewer algorithm iterations and outperforms traditional approaches in such complex environments.Comment: This article has been accepted by IEEE Access on June 30, 202

Satisfying flexible due dates in fuzzy job shop by means of hybrid evolutionary algorithms

This paper tackles the job shop scheduling problem with fuzzy sets modelling uncertain durations and flexible due dates. The objective is to achieve high-service level by maximising due-date satisfaction, considering two different overall satisfaction measures as objective functions. We show how these functions model different attitudes in the framework of fuzzy multicriteria decision making and we define a measure of solution robustness based on an existing a-posteriori semantics of fuzzy schedules to further assess the quality of the obtained solutions. As solving method, we improve a memetic algorithm from the literature by incorporating a new heuristic mechanism to guide the search through plateaus of the fitness landscape. We assess the performance of the resulting algorithm with an extensive experimental study, including a parametric analysis, and a study of the algorithm’s components and synergy between them. We provide results on a set of existing and new benchmark instances for fuzzy job shop with flexible due dates that show the competitiveness of our method.This research has been supported by the Spanish Government under research grant TIN2016-79190-R

Design and Analysis of an Estimation of Distribution Approximation Algorithm for Single Machine Scheduling in Uncertain Environments

In the current work we introduce a novel estimation of distribution algorithm to tackle a hard combinatorial optimization problem, namely the single-machine scheduling problem, with uncertain delivery times. The majority of the existing research coping with optimization problems in uncertain environment aims at finding a single sufficiently robust solution so that random noise and unpredictable circumstances would have the least possible detrimental effect on the quality of the solution. The measures of robustness are usually based on various kinds of empirically designed averaging techniques. In contrast to the previous work, our algorithm aims at finding a collection of robust schedules that allow for a more informative decision making. The notion of robustness is measured quantitatively in terms of the classical mathematical notion of a norm on a vector space. We provide a theoretical insight into the relationship between the properties of the probability distribution over the uncertain delivery times and the robustness quality of the schedules produced by the algorithm after a polynomial runtime in terms of approximation ratios

An Effective Multi-Population Based Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Job Shop Scheduling Problem

The job shop scheduling problem is a well known practical planning problem in the manufacturing sector. We have considered the JSSP with an objective of minimizing makespan. In this paper, a multi-population based hybrid genetic algorithm is developed for solving the JSSP. The population is divided in several groups at first and the hybrid algorithm is applied to the disjoint groups. Then the migration operator is used. The proposed approach, MP-HGA, have been compared with other algorithms for job-shop scheduling and evaluated with satisfactory results on a set of JSSPs derived from classical job-shop scheduling benchmarks. We have solved 15 benchmark problems and compared results obtained with a number of algorithms established in the literature. The experimental results show that MP-HGA could gain the best known makespan in 13 out of 15 problems