Innovation strategy in industry: case of the scheduling problem on parallel identical machines

In this paper, we propose an innovation strategy in the industry (case of the scheduling problem on two parallel identical machines), with the objective of minimizing the weighted sum of the end dates of jobs, this problem is NP-hard. In this frame, we suggested a novel heuristics: (H1), (H2), (H3), with two types of neighborhood (neighborhood by SWAP and neighborhood by INSERT). Next, we analyze the incorporation of three diversification times (T1), (T2), and (T3) with the aim of exploring unvisited regions of the solution space. It must be noted that job movement can be within one zone or between different zones. Computational tests are performed on 6 problems with up to 2 machines and 500 jobs

Joint scheduling of jobs and preventive maintenance operations in the flowshop sequencing problem: A resolution with sequential and integrated strategies.

International audienceUsually, scheduling of maintenance operations and production sequencing are dealt with separately in the literature and, therefore, also in the industry. Given that maintenance affects available production time and elapsed production time affects the probability of machine failure, this interdependency seems to be overlooked in the literature. This paper presents a comparative study on joint production and preventive maintenance scheduling strategies regarding flowshop problems. The sequential strategy which consists of two steps: first scheduling the production jobs then inserting maintenance operations, taking the production schedule as a strong constraint. The integrated one which consists of simultaneously scheduling both maintenance and production activities based on a common representation of these two activities. For each strategy, a constructive heuristic and two meta-heuristics are proposed: NEH heuristic, Genetic algorithm and Taboo search. The goal is to optimize an objective function which takes into account both production and maintenance criteria. The proposed heuristics have been applied to non-standard test problems which represent joint production and maintenance benchmark flowshop scheduling problems taken from Benbouzid et al. (2003). A comparison of the solutions yielded by the heuristics developed in this paper with the heuristic solutions given by Taillard (1993) is undertaken with respect to the minimization of performance loss after maintenance insertion. The comparison shows that the proposed integrated GAs are clearly superior to all the analyzed algorithms

Optimization Models and Approximate Algorithms for the Aerial Refueling Scheduling and Rescheduling Problems

The Aerial Refueling Scheduling Problem (ARSP) can be defined as determining the refueling completion times for fighter aircrafts (jobs) on multiple tankers (machines) to minimize the total weighted tardiness. ARSP can be modeled as a parallel machine scheduling with release times and due date-to-deadline window. ARSP assumes that the jobs have different release times, due dates, and due date-to-deadline windows between the refueling due date and a deadline to return without refueling. The Aerial Refueling Rescheduling Problem (ARRP), on the other hand, can be defined as updating the existing AR schedule after being disrupted by job related events including the arrival of new aircrafts, departure of an existing aircrafts, and changes in aircraft priorities. ARRP is formulated as a multiobjective optimization problem by minimizing the total weighted tardiness (schedule quality) and schedule instability. Both ARSP and ARRP are formulated as mixed integer programming models. The objective function in ARSP is a piecewise tardiness cost that takes into account due date-to-deadline windows and job priorities. Since ARSP is NP-hard, four approximate algorithms are proposed to obtain solutions in reasonable computational times, namely (1) apparent piecewise tardiness cost with release time rule (APTCR), (2) simulated annealing starting from random solution (SArandom ), (3) SA improving the initial solution constructed by APTCR (SAAPTCR), and (4) Metaheuristic for Randomized Priority Search (MetaRaPS). Additionally, five regeneration and partial repair algorithms (MetaRE, BestINSERT, SEPRE, LSHIFT, and SHUFFLE) were developed for ARRP to update instantly the current schedule at the disruption time. The proposed heuristic algorithms are tested in terms of solution quality and CPU time through computational experiments with randomly generated data to represent AR operations and disruptions. Effectiveness of the scheduling and rescheduling algorithms are compared to optimal solutions for problems with up to 12 jobs and to each other for larger problems with up to 60 jobs. The results show that, APTCR is more likely to outperform SArandom especially when the problem size increases, although it has significantly worse performance than SA in terms of deviation from optimal solution for small size problems. Moreover CPU time performance of APTCR is significantly better than SA in both cases. MetaRaPS is more likely to outperform SAAPTCR in terms of average error from optimal solutions for both small and large size problems. Results for small size problems show that MetaRaPS algorithm is more robust compared to SAAPTCR. However, CPU time performance of SA is significantly better than MetaRaPS in both cases. ARRP experiments were conducted with various values of objective weighting factor for extended analysis. In the job arrival case, MetaRE and BestINSERT have significantly performed better than SEPRE in terms of average relative error for small size problems. In the case of job priority disruption, there is no significant difference between MetaRE, BestINSERT, and SHUFFLE algorithms. MetaRE has significantly performed better than LSHIFT to repair job departure disruptions and significantly superior to the BestINSERT algorithm in terms of both relative error and computational time for large size problems

Approximate Algorithms for the Combined arrival-Departure Aircraft Sequencing and Reactive Scheduling Problems on Multiple Runways

The problem addressed in this dissertation is the Aircraft Sequencing Problem (ASP) in which a schedule must be developed to determine the assignment of each aircraft to a runway, the appropriate sequence of aircraft on each runway, and their departing or landing times. The dissertation examines the ASP over multiple runways, under mixed mode operations with the objective of minimizing the total weighted tardiness of aircraft landings and departures simultaneously. To prevent the dangers associated with wake-vortex effects, separation times enforced by Aviation Administrations (e.g., FAA) are considered, adding another level of complexity given that such times are sequence-dependent. Due to the problem being NP-hard, it is computationally difficult to solve large scale instances in a reasonable amount of time. Therefore, three greedy algorithms, namely the Adapted Apparent Tardiness Cost with Separation and Ready Times (AATCSR), the Earliest Ready Time (ERT) and the Fast Priority Index (FPI) are proposed. Moreover, metaheuristics including Simulated Annealing (SA) and the Metaheuristic for Randomized Priority Search (Meta-RaPS) are introduced to improve solutions initially constructed by the proposed greedy algorithms. The performance (solution quality and computational time) of the various algorithms is compared to the optimal solutions and to each other. The dissertation also addresses the Aircraft Reactive Scheduling Problem (ARSP) as air traffic systems frequently encounter various disruptions due to unexpected events such as inclement weather, aircraft failures or personnel shortages rendering the initial plan suboptimal or even obsolete in some cases. This research considers disruptions including the arrival of new aircraft, flight cancellations and aircraft delays. ARSP is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem in which both the schedule\u27s quality and stability are of interest. The objectives consist of the total weighted start times (solution quality), total weighted start time deviation, and total weighted runway deviation (instability measures). Repair and complete regeneration approximate algorithms are developed for each type of disruptive events. The algorithms are tested against difficult benchmark problems and the solutions are compared to optimal solutions in terms of solution quality, schedule stability and computational time

Scheduling Problems

Scheduling is defined as the process of assigning operations to resources over time to optimize a criterion. Problems with scheduling comprise both a set of resources and a set of a consumers. As such, managing scheduling problems involves managing the use of resources by several consumers. This book presents some new applications and trends related to task and data scheduling. In particular, chapters focus on data science, big data, high-performance computing, and Cloud computing environments. In addition, this book presents novel algorithms and literature reviews that will guide current and new researchers who work with load balancing, scheduling, and allocation problems

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 study of maintenance contribution to joint production and preventive maintenance scheduling problems in the robustness framework.

International audienceIn this paper, we deal with a joint production and Preventive Maintenance (PM) scheduling problem in the robustness framework. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we will establish that the insertion of maintenance activities during production scheduling can hedge against some changes in the shop environment. Furthermore, we will check if respecting the optimal intervals of maintenance activities guarantees a minimal robustness threshold. Then, we will try to identify from the used optimisation criteria those that allow making predictive schedules more robust. The computational experiments in a flowshop show that joint production and PM schedules are more robust than production schedules and maintenance provides an acceptable tradeoff between equipment reliability and performance loss under disruption

Risk-Based Optimal Scheduling for the Predictive Maintenance of Railway Infrastructure

In this thesis a risk-based decision support system to schedule the predictive maintenance activities, is proposed. The model deals with the maintenance planning of a railway infrastructure in which the due-dates are defined via failure risk analysis.The novelty of the approach consists of the risk concept introduction in railway maintenance scheduling, according to ISO 55000 guidelines, thus implying that the maintenance priorities are based on asset criticality, determined taking into account the relevant failure probability, related to asset degradation conditions, and the consequent damages