A new lower bound approach for single-machine multicriteria scheduling

The concept of maximum potential improvement has played an important role in computing lower bounds for single-machine scheduling problems with composite objective functions that are linear in the job completion times. We introduce a new method for lower bound computation; objective splitting. We show that it dominates the maximum potential improvement method in terms of speed and quality

Minimizing total inventory cost on a single machine in just-in-time manufacturing

The just-in-time concept decrees not to accept ordered goods before their due dates in order to avoid inventory cost. This bounces the inventory cost back to the manufacturer: products that are completed before their due dates have to be stored. Reducing this type of storage cost by preclusion of early completion conflicts with the traditional policy of keeping work-in-process inventories down. This paper addresses a single-machine scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing total inventory cost, comprising cost associated with work-in-process inventories and storage cost as a result of early completion. The cost components are measured by the sum of the job completion times and the sum of the job earlinesses. This problem differs from more traditional scheduling problems, since the insertion of machine idle time may reduce total cost. The search for an optimal schedule, however, can be limited to the set of job sequences, since for any sequence there is a clear-cut way to insert machine idle time in order to minimize total inventory cost. We apply branch-and-bound to identify an optimal schedule. We present five approaches for lower bound calculation, based upon relaxation of the objective function, of the state space, and upon Lagrangian relaxation. Key Words and Phrases: just-in-time manufacturing, inventory cost, work-in-process inventory, earliness, tardiness, machine idle time, branch-and-bound algorithm, Lagrangian relaxation

Earliness-tardiness scheduling around almost equal due dates

The just-in-time concept in manufacturing has aroused interest in machine scheduling problems with earliness-tardiness penalties. In particular, common due date problems, which are structurally less complicated than problems with general due dates, have emerged as an interesting and prolific field of research

Scheduling around a small common due date

A set of n jobs has to be scheduled on a single machine which can handle only one job at a time. Each job requires a given positive uninterrupted processing time and has a positive weight. The problem is to find a schedule that minimizes the sum of weighted deviations of the job completion times from a given common due date d, which is smaller than the sum of the processing times. We prove that this problem is NP-hard even if all job weights are equal. In addition, we present a pseudopolynomial algorithm that requires O(n2d) time and O(nd) space

Stronger Lagrangian bounds by use of slack variables: applications to machine scheduling problems

Lagrangian relaxation is a powerful bounding technique that has been applied successfully to manyNP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. The basic idea is to see anNP-hard problem as an easy-to-solve problem complicated by a number of nasty side constraints. We show that reformulating nasty inequality constraints as equalities by using slack variables leads to stronger lower bounds. The trick is widely applicable, but we focus on a broad class of machine scheduling problems for which it is particularly useful. We provide promising computational results for three problems belonging to this class for which Lagrangian bounds have appeared in the literature: the single-machine problem of minimizing total weighted completion time subject to precedence constraints, the two-machine flow-shop problem of minimizing total completion time, and the single-machine problem of minimizing total weighted tardiness

Combining column generation and Lagrangean relaxation : an application to a single-machine common due date scheduling problem

Column generation has proved to be an effective technique for solving the linear programming relaxation of huge set covering or set partitioning problems, and column generation approaches have led to state-of-the-art so-called branch-and-price algorithms for various archetypical combinatorial optimization problems. Usually, if Lagrangean relaxation is embedded at all in a column generation approach, then the Lagrangean bound serves only as a tool to fathom nodes of the branch-and-price tree. We show that the Lagrangean bound can be exploited in more sophisticated and effective ways for two purposes: to speed up convergence of the column generation algorithm and to speed up the pricing algorithm. Our vehicle to demonstrate the effectiveness of teaming up column generation with Lagrangean relaxation is an archetypical single-machine common due date scheduling problem. Our comprehensive computational study shows that the combined algorithm is by far superior to two existing purely column generation algorithms: it solves instances with up to 125 jobs to optimality, while purely column generation algorithm can solve instances with up to only 60 jobs