Scheduling and Batching in Multi-Site Flexible Flow Shop Environments

Global competition and the customers demand for customized products with shorter due dates, marked the introduction of the Extended Enterprise. In this Extended Manufacturing Environment (EME), lean, virtual, networked and distributed enterprises collaborate to respond to the market demands. In this paper we study the influence of the batch size on Flexible Flow Shop makespan minimization problem FFC vertical bar vertical bar C-max for two multi-sites approaches, the FSBF (Flow Shop Based Factories) and the PMBF (Parallel-Machines Based Factories). The computational study demonstrates how the performance of the PMBF model decreases with the increase of batch size and determines the batch sizes in which the performance is similar.This work is supported by FEDER Funds through the “Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade - COMPETE” program and by National Funds through FCT “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” under the projects: “Projeto Estratégico–UI 252–2011–2012” reference PEstOE/EME/UI0252/2014, FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-PEstOE/EEI/UI0760/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

No idle flow shop scheduling models for optimization of machine rental costs with processing and separated setup times

Scheduling is one of the many skills required for advancement in today’s modern industry. The flow-shop scheduling problem is a well-known combinatorial optimization challenge. Scheduling issues for flow shops are NP-hard and challenging. The present research investigates a two-stage flow shop scheduling problem with decoupled processing and setup times, where a correlation exists between probabilities, job processing times, and setup times. This study proposes a novel heuristic algorithm that optimally sequences jobs to minimize the makespan and eliminates machine idle time, thereby reducing machine rental costs. The proposed algorithm’s efficacy is demonstrated through several computational examples implemented in MATLAB 2021a. The results are compared with the existing approaches such as those by Johnson, Palmer, NEH, and Nailwal to highlight the proposed algorithm’s superior performance

No idle flow shop scheduling models with separated set-up times and concept of job weightage to optimize rental cost of machines

The current paper investigates a two-stage flow shop scheduling model with no idle restriction, in which the time taken by machines to set-up is separately considered from the processing time. Owing to inherent usefulness as well as relevance in real-world situations, jobs' weight has additionally included. To eliminate machine idle time and cutting machine cost of rental, the reason for the conduct of the study is to provide a heuristic algorithm which, once put into practice, processes jobs in an optimal way, guarantees in smallest conceivable make span. Multiple computational examples generated in MATLAB 2019a serve as testament to the efficacy of the proposed strategy. The outcomes are contrasted with the current methods that Johnson, Palmer and NEH have demonstrated

Flow shop scheduling decisions through Techniques for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)

[EN] The flow-shop scheduling problem (FSP) has been widely studied in the literature and having a very active research area. Over the last few decades, a number of heuristic/meta-heuristic solution techniques have been developed. Some of these techniques offer excellent effectiveness and efficiency at the expense of substantial implementation efforts and being extremely complicated. This paper brings out the application of a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method known as techniques for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) using different weighting schemes in flow-shop environment. The objective function is identification of a job sequence which in turn would have minimum makespan (total job completion time). The application of the proposed method to flow shop scheduling is presented and explained with a numerical example. The results of the proposed TOPSIS based technique of FSP are also compared on the basis of some benchmark problems and found compatible with the results obtained from other standard procedures.Gupta, A.; Kumar, S. (2016). Flow shop scheduling decisions through Techniques for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 4(2):43-52. doi:10.4995/ijpme.2016.4102.SWORD43524

RULE EXTRACTION TO ESTABLISH CRITERIA FOR MINICELL DESIGN IN MASS CUSTOMIZATION MANUFACTURING

Minicell-based manufacturing system is used in identifying best minicell designs. The existing method of minicell design generates best minicell designs by designing and scheduling minicells simultaneously. While in this research designing of minicells and scheduling of jobs in minicells is done separately. This research evaluates the effectiveness of hierarchical approach and compares with simultaneous method. Minicell designs with respect to average flow times and machine capacities and both are identified in a multi-stage flow shop environment. Rules for the extraction of good minicell designs in mass customization manufacturing systems are also established

Particle Swarm Optimization

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population based stochastic optimization technique influenced by the social behavior of bird flocking or fish schooling.PSO shares many similarities with evolutionary computation techniques such as Genetic Algorithms (GA). The system is initialized with a population of random solutions and searches for optima by updating generations. However, unlike GA, PSO has no evolution operators such as crossover and mutation. In PSO, the potential solutions, called particles, fly through the problem space by following the current optimum particles. This book represents the contributions of the top researchers in this field and will serve as a valuable tool for professionals in this interdisciplinary field

New Solution Approaches for Scheduling Problems in Production and Logistics

The current cumulative PhD thesis consists of six papers published in/submitted to scientific journals. The focus of the thesis is to develop new solution approaches for scheduling problems encountering in manufacturing as well as in logistics. The thesis is divided into two parts: “ma-chine scheduling in production” and “scheduling problems in logistics” each of them consisting three papers. To have most comprehensive overview of the topic of machine scheduling, the first part of the thesis starts with two systematic review papers, which were conducted on tertiary level (i.e., re-viewing literature reviews). Both of these papers analyze a sample of around 130 literature re-views on machine scheduling problems. The first paper use a subjective quantitative approach to evaluate the sample, while the second papers uses content analysis which is an objective quanti-tative approach to extract meaningful information from massive data. Based on the analysis, main attributes of scheduling problems in production are identified and are classified into sever-al categories. Although the focus of both these papers are set to review scheduling problems in manufacturing, the results are not restricted to machine scheduling problem and the results can be extended to the second part of the thesis. General drawbacks of literature reviews are identi-fied and several suggestions for future researches are also provided in both papers. The third paper in the first part of the thesis presents the results of 105 new heuristic algorithms developed to minimize total flow time of a set of jobs in a flowshop manufacturing environ-ment. The computational experiments confirm that the best heuristic proposed in this paper im-proves the average error of best existing algorithm by around 25 percent. The first paper in second part is focused on minimizing number of electric tow-trains responsi-ble to deliver spare parts from warehouse to the production lines. Together with minimizing number of these electric vehicles the paper is also focused to maximize the work load balance among the drivers of the vehicles. For this problem, after analyzing the complexity of the prob-lem, an opening heuristic, a mixed integer linear programing (MILP) model and a taboo-search neighborhood search approach are proposed. Several managerial insights, such as the effect of battery capacity on the number of required vehicles, are also discussed. The second paper of the second part addresses the problem of preparing unit loaded devices (ULDs) at air cargos to be loaded latter on in planes. The objective of this problem is to mini-mize number of workers required in a way that all existing flight departure times are met and number of available places for building ULDs is not violated. For this problem, first, a MILP model is proposed and then it is boosted with a couple of heuristics which enabled the model to find near optimum solutions in a matter of 10 seconds. The paper also investigates the inherent tradeoff between labor and space utilization as well as the uncertainty about the volume of cargo to be processed. The last paper of the second part proposes an integrated model to improve both ergonomic and economic performance of manual order picking process by rotating pallets in the warehouse. For the problem under consideration in this paper, we first present and MILP model and then pro-pose a neighborhood search based on simulated annealing. The results of numerical experiment indicate that selectively rotating pallets may reduce both order picking time as well as the load on order picker, which leads to a quicker and less risky order picking process

Aplicación del algoritmo lompen a los problemas Fm | prmu | Cmac y Fm | block | Cmax

In this paper we face the permutation flow-shop scheduling problem with a makespan objective function in two variants, with and without storage space between machines. We use an improved branch and bound algorithm, suitable for parallel computation, to solve these problems, and auxiliary heuristics to attain an initial good solution. The auxiliary heuristics proposed are built by two steps: in the first step a permutation is obtained; in the second step a local search procedure is applied. The improvement obtained by the local search procedure on NEH heuristic as first step is shown. Since the flow-shop scheduling problem with storage space is a relaxation of the problem without storage space, some elements and procedures developed for that problem can be used in both problems. In particular, some bounding procedures, for instance Nabeshima or Lageweg bounding schema, can be adapted. Moreover, the reversibility property holds on both problems. Consequently the branch and bound algorithm can be applied simultaneously to the direct and the inverse instances. The same sets of data are submitted to heuristics and to the double branch-and-bound algorithm, LOMPEN, assuming first they are instances of flow-shop scheduling problem with storage space and later they are instances of flow-shop scheduling problem without storage space. The algorithms are coded in a similar way; therefore the behaviour and performance can be compared

Hybrid flow shop scheduling problems using improved fireworks algorithm for permutation

Prior studies are lacking which address permutation flow shop scheduling problems and hybrid flow shop scheduling problems together to help firms find the optimized scheduling strategy. The permutation flow shop scheduling problem and hybrid flow shop scheduling problems are important production scheduling types, which widely exist in industrial production fields. This study aimed to acquire the best scheduling strategy for making production plans. An improved fireworks algorithm is proposed to minimize the makespan in the proposed strategies. The proposed improved fireworks algorithm is compared with the fireworks algorithm, and the improvement strategies include the following: (1) A nonlinear radius is introduced and the minimum explosion amplitude is checked to avoid the waste of optimal fireworks; (2) The original Gaussian mutation operator is replaced by a hybrid operator that combines Cauchy and Gaussian mutation to improve the search ability; and (3) An elite group selection strategy is adopted to reduce the computing costs. Two instances from the permutation flow shop scheduling problem and hybrid flow shop scheduling problems were used to evaluate the improved fireworks algorithm’s performance, and the computational results demonstrate the improved fireworks algorithm’s superiority