Constructive heuristics for the unrelated parallel machines scheduling problem with machine eligibility and setup times

This work considers a scheduling problem identified in a factory producing customised Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment. More specifically, the metal folding section is modelled as unrelated parallel machines with machine eligibility and sequence-dependent setup times. The objective under consideration is the minimisation of the total tardiness. The problem is known to be NP-hard so approximate methods are needed to solve real-size instances. In order to embed the scheduling procedure into a decision support system providing high-quality solutions in nearly real time, the goal of this paper is to develop fast, efficient constructive heuristics for the problem. Due to the lack of methods for this specific problem, some existing heuristics and one metaheuristic are selected from related problems and adapted. In addition, a set of heuristics with novel repair and improvement phases are proposed. The performance of the methods adapted and the proposals are compared with the optimal/approximate solutions obtained by a solver for an MILP in two sets of instances with small and medium sizes. Additionally, big-size instances (representing more realistic cases for our company) have been solved using the proposed constructive heuristics, providing efficient solutions in negligible computational times. Even if the adaptation of heuristics performs reasonably well, these are outperformed by the new heuristic proposed in this paper. In addition, when the new heuristic is embedded in the metaheuristic adapted from a related the problem, the results obtained are excellent in terms of the quality of the solution, even if the computational effort is somewhat higher.Ministerio de Ciencia en Innovación. “PROMISE

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

Heuristic algorithms for the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with one scarce additional resource

[EN] In this paper, we study the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with one scarce additional resource to minimise the maximum completion time of the jobs or makespan. Several heuristics are proposed following two strategies: the first one is based on the consideration of the resource constraint during the whole solution construction process. The second one starts from several assignment rules without considering the resource constraint, and repairs the non feasible assignments in order to obtain a feasible solution. Several computation experiments are carried out over an extensive benchmark. A comparative evaluation against previously proposed mathematical models and matheuristics (combination of mathematical models and heuristics) is carried out. From the results, we can conclude that our methods outperform the existing ones, and the second strategy performs better, especially for large instances. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The authors are supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under the projects "SCHEYARD - Optimization of Scheduling Problems in Container Yards" (No. DPI2015-65895-R) and "OPTEMAC - Optimizacion de Procesos en Terminales Maritimas de Contenedores" (No. DPI2014-53665-P), all of them partially financed with FEDER funds. The authors are also partially supported by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 731932 "Transforming Transport: Big Data Value in Mobility and Logistics". Interested readers can download contents from http://soa.iti.es, like the instances used and a software for generating further instances. Source codes are available upon justified request from the authors.Villa Juliá, MF.; Vallada Regalado, E.; Fanjul Peyró, L. (2018). Heuristic algorithms for the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with one scarce additional resource. Expert Systems with Applications. 93:28-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2017.09.054S28389

Enabling the “Easy Button” for Broad, Parallel Optimization of Functions Evaluated by Simulation

Java Optimization by Simulation (JOBS) is presented: an open-source, object-oriented Java library designed to enable the study, research, and use of optimization for models evaluated by simulation. JOBS includes several novel design features that make it easy for a simulation modeler, without extensive expertise in optimization or parallel computation, to define an optimization model with deterministic and/or stochastic constraints, choose one or more metaheuristics to solve it and run, using massively parallel function evaluation to reduce wall-clock times. JOBS is supported by a new language independent, application programming interface (API) for remote simulation model evaluation and a serverless computing environment to provide massively parallel function evaluation, on demand. Dynamic loop scheduling methods are evaluated in the serverless environment with the opportunity for significant resource contention for master node computing power and network bandwidth. JOBS implements several population-based and single-solution improvement metaheuristics (solvers) for real, discrete, and mixed problems. The object-oriented design is extendible with classes that drastically reduce the amount of code required to implement a new solver and encourage re-use of solvers as building blocks for creating new multi-stage solvers or memetic algorithms

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

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

Rescheduling parallel machines with controllable processing times

Ankara : The Department of Industrial Engineeringand the Graduate School of Engineering and Science of Bilkent University, 2012.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2012.Includes bibliographical references.In many manufacturing environments, the production does not always endure as it is planned. Many times, it is interrupted by a disruption such as machine breakdown, power loss, etc. In our problem, we are given an original production schedule in a non-identical parallel machine environment and we assume that one of the machines is disrupted at time t. Our aim is to revise the schedule, although there are some restrictions that should be considered while creating the revised schedule. Disrupted machine is unavailable for a certain time. New schedule has to satisfy the maximum completion time constraint of each machine. Furthermore, when we revise the schedule we have to satisfy the constraint that the revised start time of a job cannot be earlier than its original start time. Because, we assume that jobs are not ready before their original start times in the revised schedule. Therefore, we have to find an alternative solution to decrease the negative impacts of this disruption as much as possible. One way to process a disrupted job in the revised schedule is to reallocate the job to another machine. The other way is to keep the disrupted job at its original machine, but to delay its start time after the end time of the disruption. Since the machines might be fully utilized originally, we may have to compress some of the processing times in order to add a new job to a machine or to reallocate the jobs after the disruption ends. Consequently, we assume that the processing times are controllable within the given lower and upper bounds. Our first objective is to minimize the sum of reallocation and nonlinear compression costs. Besides, it is important to deliver the orders on time, not earlier or later than they are promised. Therefore, we try to maintain the original completion times as much as possible. So, the second objective is to minimize the total absolute deviations of the completion times in the revised schedule from the original completion times. We developed a bi-criteria non-linear mathematical model to solve this nonidentical parallel machine rescheduling problem. Since we have two objectives, we handled the second objective by giving it an upper bound and adding this bound as a constraint to the problem. By utilizing the second order cone programming, we solved this mixed-integer nonlinear mathematical model using a commercial MIP solver such as CPLEX. We also propose a decision tree based heuristic algorithm. Our algorithm generates a set of solutions for a problem instance and we test the solution quality of the algorithm solving same problem instances by the mathematical model. According to our computational experiments, the proposed heuristic approach could obtain close solutions for the first objective for a given upper bound on the second objective.Muhafız, MügeM.S

Energy aware hybrid flow shop scheduling

Only if humanity acts quickly and resolutely can we limit global warming' conclude more than 25,000 academics with the statement of SCIENTISTS FOR FUTURE. The concern about global warming and the extinction of species has steadily increased in recent years

A continuous time model for a short-term multiproduct batch process scheduling

In the chemical industry, it is common to find production systems characterized by having a single stage or a previously identified bottleneck stage, with multiple non-identical parallel stations and with setup costs that depend on the production sequence. This paper proposes a mixed integer production-scheduling model that identifies lot size and product sequence that maximize profit. It considers multiple typical industry conditions, such as penalties for noncompliance or out of service periods of the productive units (or stations) for preventive maintenance activities. The model was validated with real data from an oil chemical company.  Aiming to analyze its performance, we applied the model to 155 instances of production, which were obtained using Monte Carlo technique on the historical production data of the same company.  We obtained an average 12 % reduction in the total cost of production and a 19 % increase in the estimated profit.En la industria química es común encontrar sistemas de producción caracterizados por tener una sola etapa o una etapa cuello de botella,  con múltiples estaciones paralelas, no idénticas, y con costos de preparación o alistamiento dependientes de la secuencia de producción.  Este artículo propone un modelo lineal mixto de programación de la producción que busca identificar el tamaño de lote y la secuenciación de productos con el objetivo de maximizar el beneficio. Considera múltiples condiciones típicas de la industria, tales como la penalización por incumplimientos, la programación de mantenimientos preventivos de las estaciones y la disponibilidad temporal de las estaciones. El modelo se validó con datos reales de una empresa de la industria del petróleo. Buscando analizar el desempeño del modelo, se analizaron los resultados de aplicar el modelo a 155 instancias generadas aplicando simulación Montecarlo, a los datos históricos de producción de la misma compañía.  Se obtuvo una reducción del 12 % en la reducción total del costo de producción y un incremento del 19 % en la utilidad estimada