Scheduling precedence-constrained jobs with stochastic processing times on parallel machines

We consider parallel machine scheduling problems where the jobs are subject to precedence constraints, and the processing times of jobs are governed by independent probability distributions. The objective is to minimize the weighted sum of job completion times &;j wjC_j in expectation, where wj&; 0. Building upon an LP-relaxation by Möhring, Schulz, and Uetz (J.ACM 46 (1999), pp.924-942) and an idle time charging scheme by Chekuri, Motwani, Natarajan, and Stein (SIAM J. Comp., to appear) we derive the first approximation algorithms for this model

The complexity of generating robust resource-constrained baseline schedules.

Robust scheduling aims at the construction of a schedule that is protected against uncertain events. A stable schedule is a robust schedule that will change little when variations in the input parameters arise. Robustness can also be achieved by making the schedule makespan insensitive to variability. In this paper, we describe models for the generation of stable and insensitive baseline schedules for resource-constrained scheduling problems and present results on their complexity status. We start from a project scheduling viewpoint and derive results on machine scheduling sub-problems.Complexity; Information; Product scheduling; Robustness; sensitivity; stability;

Project scheduling under undertainty – survey and research potentials.

The vast majority of the research efforts in project scheduling assume complete information about the scheduling problem to be solved and a static deterministic environment within which the pre-computed baseline schedule will be executed. However, in the real world, project activities are subject to considerable uncertainty, that is gradually resolved during project execution. In this survey we review the fundamental approaches for scheduling under uncertainty: reactive scheduling, stochastic project scheduling, stochastic GERT network scheduling, fuzzy project scheduling, robust (proactive) scheduling and sensitivity analysis. We discuss the potentials of these approaches for scheduling projects under uncertainty.Management; Project management; Robustness; Scheduling; Stability;

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