Competitive two-agent scheduling with deteriorating jobs on a single parallel-batching machine

We consider a scheduling problem in which the jobs are generated by two agents and have time-dependent proportional-linear deteriorating processing times. The two agents compete for a common single batching machine to process their jobs, and each agent has its own criterion to optimize. The jobs may have identical or different release dates. The batching machine can process several jobs simultaneously as a batch and the processing time of a batch is equal to the longest of the job processing times in the batch. The problem is to determine a schedule for processing the jobs such that the objective of one agent is minimized, while the objective of the other agent is maintained under a fixed value. For the unbounded model, we consider various combinations of regular objectives on the basis of the compatibility of the two agents. For the bounded model, we consider two different objectives for incompatible and compatible agents: minimizing the makespan of one agent subject to an upper bound on the makespan of the other agent and minimizing the number of tardy jobs of one agent subject to an upper bound on the number of tardy jobs of the other agent. We analyze the computational complexity of various problems by either demonstrating that the problem is intractable or providing an efficient exact algorithm for the problem. Moreover, for certain problems that are shown to be intractable, we provide efficient algorithms for certain special cases

A common framework and taxonomy for multicriteria scheduling problems with Interfering and competing Jobs: Multi-agent scheduling problems

Most classical scheduling research assumes that the objectives sought are common to all jobs to be scheduled. However, many real-life applications can be modeled by considering different sets of jobs, each one with its own objective(s), and an increasing number of papers addressing these problems has appeared over the last few years. Since so far the area lacks a uni ed view, the studied problems have received different names (such as interfering jobs, multi-agent scheduling, mixed-criteria, etc), some authors do not seem to be aware of important contributions in related problems, and solution procedures are often developed without taking into account existing ones. Therefore, the topic is in need of a common framework that allows for a systematic recollection of existing contributions, as well as a clear de nition of the main research avenues. In this paper we review multicriteria scheduling problems involving two or more sets of jobs and propose an uni ed framework providing a common de nition, name and notation for these problems. Moreover, we systematically review and classify the existing contributions in terms of the complexity of the problems and the proposed solution procedures, discuss the main advances, and point out future research lines in the topic

Serial-batch scheduling – the special case of laser-cutting machines

The dissertation deals with a problem in the field of short-term production planning, namely the scheduling of laser-cutting machines. The object of decision is the grouping of production orders (batching) and the sequencing of these order groups on one or more machines (scheduling). This problem is also known in the literature as "batch scheduling problem" and belongs to the class of combinatorial optimization problems due to the interdependencies between the batching and the scheduling decisions. The concepts and methods used are mainly from production planning, operations research and machine learning

Deterministic Assembly Scheduling Problems: A Review and Classification of Concurrent-Type Scheduling Models and Solution Procedures

Many activities in industry and services require the scheduling of tasks that can be concurrently executed, the most clear example being perhaps the assembly of products carried out in manufacturing. Although numerous scientific contributions have been produced on this area over the last decades, the wide extension of the problems covered and the lack of a unified approach have lead to a situation where the state of the art in the field is unclear, which in turn hinders new research and makes translating the scientific knowledge into practice difficult. In this paper we propose a unified notation for assembly scheduling models that encompass all concurrent-type scheduling problems. Using this notation, the existing contributions are reviewed and classified into a single framework, so a comprehensive, unified picture of the field is obtained. In addition, a number of conclusions regarding the state of the art in the topic are presented, as well as some opportunities for future research.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación español DPI2016-80750-

Production Scheduling Requirements to Smart Manufacturing

The production scheduling has attracted a lot of researchers for many years, however most of the approaches are not targeted to deal with real manufacturing environments, and those that are, are very particular for the case study. It is crucial to consider important features related with the factories, such as products and machines characteristics and unexpected disturbances, but also information such as when the parts arrive to the factory and when should be delivered. So, the purpose of this paper is to identify some important characteristics that have been considered independently in a lot of studies and that should be considered together to develop a generic scheduling framework to be used in a real manufacturing environment.authorsversionpublishe

Four decades of research on the open-shop scheduling problem to minimize the makespan

One of the basic scheduling problems, the open-shop scheduling problem has a broad range of applications across different sectors. The problem concerns scheduling a set of jobs, each of which has a set of operations, on a set of different machines. Each machine can process at most one operation at a time and the job processing order on the machines is immaterial, i.e., it has no implication for the scheduling outcome. The aim is to determine a schedule, i.e., the completion times of the operations processed on the machines, such that a performance criterion is optimized. While research on the problem dates back to the 1970s, there have been reviving interests in the computational complexity of variants of the problem and solution methodologies in the past few years. Aiming to provide a complete road map for future research on the open-shop scheduling problem, we present an up-to-date and comprehensive review of studies on the problem that focuses on minimizing the makespan, and discuss potential research opportunities

Advances and Novel Approaches in Discrete Optimization

Discrete optimization is an important area of Applied Mathematics with a broad spectrum of applications in many fields. This book results from a Special Issue in the journal Mathematics entitled ‘Advances and Novel Approaches in Discrete Optimization’. It contains 17 articles covering a broad spectrum of subjects which have been selected from 43 submitted papers after a thorough refereeing process. Among other topics, it includes seven articles dealing with scheduling problems, e.g., online scheduling, batching, dual and inverse scheduling problems, or uncertain scheduling problems. Other subjects are graphs and applications, evacuation planning, the max-cut problem, capacitated lot-sizing, and packing algorithms

A survey of scheduling problems with setup times or costs

Author name used in this publication: C. T. NgAuthor name used in this publication: T. C. E. Cheng2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

Theoretical and Computational Research in Various Scheduling Models

Nine manuscripts were published in this Special Issue on “Theoretical and Computational Research in Various Scheduling Models, 2021” of the MDPI Mathematics journal, covering a wide range of topics connected to the theory and applications of various scheduling models and their extensions/generalizations. These topics include a road network maintenance project, cost reduction of the subcontracted resources, a variant of the relocation problem, a network of activities with generally distributed durations through a Markov chain, idea on how to improve the return loading rate problem by integrating the sub-tour reversal approach with the method of the theory of constraints, an extended solution method for optimizing the bi-objective no-idle permutation flowshop scheduling problem, the burn-in (B/I) procedure, the Pareto-scheduling problem with two competing agents, and three preemptive Pareto-scheduling problems with two competing agents, among others. We hope that the book will be of interest to those working in the area of various scheduling problems and provide a bridge to facilitate the interaction between researchers and practitioners in scheduling questions. Although discrete mathematics is a common method to solve scheduling problems, the further development of this method is limited due to the lack of general principles, which poses a major challenge in this research field