A general Framework for Utilizing Metaheuristic Optimization for Sustainable Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling: A concise overview

Sustainable development has emerged as a global priority, and industries are increasingly striving to align their operations with sustainable practices. Parallel machine scheduling (PMS) is a critical aspect of production planning that directly impacts resource utilization and operational efficiency. In this paper, we investigate the application of metaheuristic optimization algorithms to address the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem (UPMSP) through the lens of sustainable development goals (SDGs). The primary objective of this study is to explore how metaheuristic optimization algorithms can contribute to achieving sustainable development goals in the context of UPMSP. We examine a range of metaheuristic algorithms, including genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, ant colony optimization, and more, and assess their effectiveness in optimizing the scheduling problem. The algorithms are evaluated based on their ability to improve resource utilization, minimize energy consumption, reduce environmental impact, and promote socially responsible production practices. To conduct a comprehensive analysis, we consider UPMSP instances that incorporate sustainability-related constraints and objectives

A statistical comparison of metaheuristics for unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems with setup times

Manufacturing scheduling aims to optimize one or more performance measures by allocating a set of resources to a set of jobs or tasks over a given period of time. It is an area that considers a very important decision-making process for manufacturing and production systems. In this paper, the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with machine-dependent and job-sequence-dependent setup times is addressed. This problem involves the scheduling of tasks on unrelated machines with setup times in order to minimize the makespan. The genetic algorithm is used to solve small and large instances of this problem when processing and setup times are balanced (Balanced problems), when processing times are dominant (Dominant P problems), and when setup times are dominant (Dominant S problems). For small instances, most of the values achieved the optimal makespan value, and, when compared to the metaheuristic ant colony optimization (ACOII) algorithm referred to in the literature, it was found that there were no significant differences between the two methods. However, in terms of large instances, there were significant differences between the optimal makespan obtained by the two methods, revealing overall better performance by the genetic algorithm for Dominant S and Dominant P problems.FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the R&D Units Project Scope UIDB/00319/2020 and EXPL/EME-SIS/1224/2021 and PhD grant UI/BD/150936/2021

Hybrid Ant Colony Optimization For Fuzzy Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling Problems

This study extends the best hybrid ant colony optimization variant developed by Liao et al. (2014) for crisp unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems to solve fuzzy unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems in consideration of trapezoidal fuzzy processing times, trapezoidal fuzzy sequencing dependent setup times and trapezoidal fuzzy release times. The objective is to find the best schedule taking minimum fuzzy makespan in completing all jobs. In this study, fuzzy arithmetic is used to determine fuzzy completion times of jobs and defuzzification function is used to convert fuzzy numbers back to crisp numbers for ranking. Eight fuzzy ranking methods are tested to find the most feasible one to be employed in this study. The fuzzy arithmetic testing includes four different cases and each case with the following operations separately, i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, to investigate the spread of fuzziness as fuzzy numbers are subject to more and more number of operations. The effect of fuzzy ranking methods on hybrid ant colony optimization (hACO) is investigated. To prove the correctness of our methodology and coding, unrelated parallel machine scheduling with fuzzy numbers and crisp numbers are compared based on scheduling problems up to 15 machines and 200 jobs. Relative percentage deviation (RPD) is used to evaluate the performance of hACO in solving fuzzy unrelated parallel machine scheduling problems. A numerical study on large-scale scheduling problems up to 20 machines and 200 jobs is conducted to assess the performance of the hACO algorithm. For comparison, a discrete particle swarm optimization (dPSO) algorithm is implemented for fuzzy unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem as well. The results show that the hACO has better performance than dPSO not only in solution quality in terms of RPD value, but also in computational time

A multi objective volleyball premier league algorithm for green scheduling identical parallel machines with splitting jobs

Parallel machine scheduling is one of the most common studied problems in recent years, however, this classic optimization problem has to achieve two conflicting objectives, i.e. minimizing the total tardiness and minimizing the total wastes, if the scheduling is done in the context of plastic injection industry where jobs are splitting and molds are important constraints. This paper proposes a mathematical model for scheduling parallel machines with splitting jobs and resource constraints. Two minimization objectives - the total tardiness and the number of waste - are considered, simultaneously. The obtained model is a bi-objective integer linear programming model that is shown to be of NP-hard class optimization problems. In this paper, a novel Multi-Objective Volleyball Premier League (MOVPL) algorithm is presented for solving the aforementioned problem. This algorithm uses the crowding distance concept used in NSGA-II as an extension of the Volleyball Premier League (VPL) that we recently introduced. Furthermore, the results are compared with six multi-objective metaheuristic algorithms of MOPSO, NSGA-II, MOGWO, MOALO, MOEA/D, and SPEA2. Using five standard metrics and ten test problems, the performance of the Pareto-based algorithms was investigated. The results demonstrate that in general, the proposed algorithm has supremacy than the other four algorithms

Minimización del makespan para el problema de máquinas paralelas no relacionadas con tiempos de setup dependientes de la secuencia mediante un algoritmo híbrido VNS/ACO*

This paper proposes a hybrid heuristic that combines Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) with Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) to solve the scheduling problem of nonrelated parallel machines with sequence dependent setup times in order to minimize the makespan. The Variable Neighborhood Search is proposed to solve the scheduling problem with a descending scheme in a first phase, with an ACO algorithm, which successively reorder the jobs in the machine with the largest makespan in a second phase. An experimental study was performed using test problems from the literature showing that the second phase of the algorithm improves the solution obtained in the first phase. The results obtained are also compared with other methods in the literature proving to be a competitive method.Se propone una heurística híbrida combinando Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) y Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) para resolver el problema de programación de máquinas paralelas no relacionadas con tiempos de preparación dependientes de la secuencia con el objetivo de minimizar el makespan. La búsqueda en entornos variables se propone con un esquema descendente resolviendo en una primera etapa el problema de programación de los trabajos a las máquinas, y luego, en una segunda etapa, un algoritmo ACO, reordena sucesivamente los trabajos en la máquina de mayor makespan. Se realizan pruebas experimentales sobre un conjunto de problemas de prueba de la literatura, mostrando que al aplicar la segunda etapa de la metaheurística propuesta se mejoran las soluciones obtenidas en la primera etapa del algoritmo y que al comparar los resultados obtenidos con otros métodos de la literatura resulta ser un método competitivo.&nbsp

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

Ant colony optimization based algorithm for solving scheduling problems with setup times on parallel machines

In this paper, a production scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times on a set of unrelated parallel machines is addressed. The objective function is to minimize the total setup time . An algorithm based on ant colony optimization combined with a heuristic is proposed for solving large problems efficiently. It is shown that even a simpler version of the problem can not be tackled with MILP. ACO gives good results for the simpler problem version in a reasonable time. Even ACO can not give good results for the industrial problem. However, ACO combined with the heuristic can give us satisfactory results for the industrial problem in a reasonable time

Hybrid Job Shop and Parallel Machine Scheduling Problems: Minimization of Total Tardiness Criterion

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