Single-machine scheduling with stepwise tardiness costs and release times

We study a scheduling problem that belongs to the yard operations component of the railroad planning problems, namely the hump sequencing problem. The scheduling problem is characterized as a single-machine problem with stepwise tardiness cost objectives. This is a new scheduling criterion which is also relevant in the context of traditional machine scheduling problems. We produce complexity results that characterize some cases of the problem as pseudo-polynomially solvable. For the difficult-to-solve cases of the problem, we develop mathematical programming formulations, and propose heuristic algorithms. We test the formulations and heuristic algorithms on randomly generated single-machine scheduling problems and real-life datasets for the hump sequencing problem. Our experiments show promising results for both sets of problems

How the structure of precedence constraints may change the complexity class of scheduling problems

This survey aims at demonstrating that the structure of precedence constraints plays a tremendous role on the complexity of scheduling problems. Indeed many problems can be NP-hard when considering general precedence constraints, while they become polynomially solvable for particular precedence constraints. We also show that there still are many very exciting challenges in this research area

A hybrid shifting bottleneck-tabu search heuristic for the job shop total weighted tardiness problem

In this paper, we study the job shop scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the total weighted tardiness. We propose a hybrid shifting bottleneck - tabu search (SB-TS) algorithm by replacing the reoptimization step in the shifting bottleneck (SB) algorithm by a tabu search (TS). In terms of the shifting bottleneck heuristic, the proposed tabu search optimizes the total weighted tardiness for partial schedules in which some machines are currently assumed to have infinite capacity. In the context of tabu search, the shifting bottleneck heuristic features a long-term memory which helps to diversify the local search. We exploit this synergy to develop a state-of-the-art algorithm for the job shop total weighted tardiness problem (JS-TWT). The computational effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated on standard benchmark instances from the literature

Preemptive scheduling with position costs

This paper is devoted to basic scheduling problems in which the scheduling cost of a job is not a function of its completion time. Instead, the cost is derived from the integration of a cost function over the time intervals on which the job is processed. This criterion is specially meaningful when job preemption is allowed. Polynomial algorithms are presented to solve some special cases including a one-machine problem with a common due date and a two-machine problem with linear nondecreasing cost functions

Preemptive Scheduling of Equal-Length Jobs to Maximize Weighted Throughput

We study the problem of computing a preemptive schedule of equal-length jobs with given release times, deadlines and weights. Our goal is to maximize the weighted throughput, which is the total weight of completed jobs. In Graham's notation this problem is described as (1 | r_j;p_j=p;pmtn | sum w_j U_j). We provide an O(n^4)-time algorithm for this problem, improving the previous bound of O(n^{10}) by Baptiste.Comment: gained one author and lost one degree in the complexit

Scheduling with processing set restrictions : a survey

2008-2009 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe