Algorithms for a realistic variant of flowshop scheduling

This paper deals with a realistic variant of flowshop scheduling, namely the hybrid flexible flowshop. A hybrid flowshop mixes the characteristics of regular flowshops and parallel machine problems by considering stages with parallel machines instead of having one single machine per stage. We also investigate the flexible version where stage skipping might occur, i.e., not all stages must be visited by all jobs. Lastly, we also consider job sequence dependent setup times per stage. The optimization criterion considered is makespan minimization. While many approaches for hybrid flowshops have been proposed, hybrid flexible flowshops have been rarely studied. The situation is even worse with the addition of sequence dependent setups. In this study, we propose two advanced algorithms that specifically deal with the flexible and setup characteristics of this problem. The first algorithm is a dynamic dispatching rule heuristic, and the second is an iterated local search metaheuristic. The proposed algorithms are evaluated by comparison against seven other high performing existing algorithms. The statistically sound results support the idea that the proposed algorithms are very competitive for the studied problem.     

The optimal number of used machines in a two-stage flexible flowshop scheduling problem

We study practical scheduling problems with a major decision referring to the number of machines to be used. We focus on a two-stage flexible flowshop, where each job is processed on the first (critical) machine, and then continues to one of the second-stage parallel machines. Jobs are assumed to have identical processing times, and are processed in batches. A setup time is required when starting a new batch. We consider two objective functions: minimum makespan and minimum flowtime. In both cases, a closed form expression for the optimal number of machines to be used is introduced, and a unique and unusual sequence of decreasing batch sizes is shown to be optimal.     

Two-stage hybrid batching flowshop scheduling with blocking and machine availability constraints using genetic algorithm

This research investigates a two-stage hybrid flowshop scheduling problem in a metal-working company. The first stage consists of multiple parallel machines and the second stage has only one machine. Four characteristics of the company have substantiated the complexity of the problem. First, all machines in stage one are able to process multiple jobs simultaneously but the jobs must be sequentially set up one after another. Second, the setup time of each job is separated from its processing time and depends upon its preceding job. Third, a blocking environment exists between two stages with no intermediate buffer storage. Finally, machines are not continuously available due to the preventive maintenance and machine breakdown. Two types of machine unavailability, namely, deterministic case and stochastic case, are identified in this problem. The former occurs on stage-two machine with the start time and the end time known in advance. The latter occurs on one of the parallel machine in stage one and a real-time rescheduling will be triggered. Minimizing the makespan is considered as the objective to develop the optimal scheduling algorithm. A genetic algorithm is used to obtain a near-optimal solution. The computational results with actual data are favorable and superior over the results from existing manual schedules.     

Bi-objective scheduling for reentrant hybrid flow shop using Pareto genetic algorithm

This paper deals with a scheduling problem for reentrant hybrid flowshop with serial stages where each stage consists of identical parallel machines. In a reentrant flowshop, a job may revisit any stage several times. Local-search based Pareto genetic algorithms with Minkowski distance-based crossover operator is proposed to approximate the Pareto optimal solutions for the minimization of makespan and total tardiness in a reentrant hybrid flowshop. The Pareto genetic algorithms are compared with existing multi-objective genetic algorithm, NSGA-II in terms of the convergence to optimal solution, the diversity of solution and the dominance of solution. Experimental results show that the proposed crossover operator and local search are effective and the proposed algorithm outperforms NSGA-II by statistical analysis.     

A memetic algorithm for the re-entrant permutation flowshop scheduling problem to minimize the makespan

A common assumption in the classical permutation flowshop scheduling model is that each job is processed on each machine at most once. However, this assumption does not hold for a re-entrant flowshop in which a job may be operated by one or more machines many times. Given that the re-entrant permutation flowshop scheduling problem to minimize the makespan is very complex, we adopt the CPLEX solver and develop a memetic algorithm (MA) to tackle the problem. We conduct computational experiments to test the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and compare it with two existing heuristics. The results show that CPLEX can solve mid-size problem instances in a reasonable computing time, and the proposed MA is effective in treating the problem and outperforms the two existing heuristics.     

A two-stage hybrid flowshop scheduling problem in machine breakdown condition

This paper considers a two-stage hybrid flowshop scheduling problem in machine breakdown condition. By machine breakdown condition we mean that the machine may not always be available during the scheduling period. Machine failure may occur with a known probability after completing a job. Probability of machine failure depends on the previous processed job. The problem to be studied has one machine at the first stage and M parallel identical machines at the second stage. The objective is to find the optimal job combinations and the optimal job schedule such that the makespan is minimized. The proposed problem is compatible with a large scope of real world situations. To solve the problem, first, we introduce one optimal approach for job precedence when there is one machine in both stages and then provide a heuristic algorithm when there are M machines in stage two. To examine the performance of the heuristic, some experiments used are provided as well.     

时间约束混合流水车间调度问题综述

车间调度是智能制造领域中的核心问题之一, 在经典流水车间调度中, 所有工件按照相同的加工顺序在指 定机床上加工. 混合流水车间调度(HFS)作为流水车间调度的特例, 相比前者增加了机床选择的灵活性, 可以显著 优化系统目标, 但同时也增加了问题求解的难度. 由于时间约束HFS相比基本HFS问题更贴近实际生产过程, 近年 来, 综合考虑各类时间相关约束的HFS问题得到了深入研究. 因此, 本文围绕基本HFS、有限等待时间HFS、带准备 时间HFS、模糊/随机加工时间HFS、多时间约束HFS、时间约束相关多目标HFS等问题开展研究. 针对每一类时间 约束HFS问题, 按照问题规模对当前研究成果进行分类描述, 按照确定性算法、启发式方法、元启发式方法、算法混 合对相关成果进行算法分类, 按照实际工业应用对文献进行归类分析. 另一方面, 围绕交货期、能耗、成本等3类性 能指标, 分析了在各类时间约束HFS问题中的多目标优化相关成果. 最后详细分析了带时间约束HFS问题在问题层 面、算法层面和应用层面存在的挑战性问题和未来研究的方向.     

Stochastic proportionate flowshop scheduling with setups

This paper addresses the problem of scheduling n jobs on a proportionate two-machine flowshop where the machines are subject to random breakdowns and setup times are considered separate from processing times. The considered performance measure is makespan. Sequences that minimize makespan with probability 1 are obtained when the first or the second machine is subject to random breakdowns without making any assumptions about downtime distributions or counting processes. It is assumed that the processing and setup times on one machine dominate the corresponding times on the other machine. In the case that processing and setup times on the first and second machines are proportionate, it is shown that the longest processing time (LPT) rule gives an optimal solution when only the first machine is subject to breakdowns, while the shortest processing time (SPT) rule yields an optimal solution when only the second machine suffers breakdowns.     

The production scheduling problem in a multi-page invoice printing system

This paper addresses the production scheduling problem in a multi-page invoice printing system. The system comprises three stages: the stencil preparation stage, the page printing stage and the invoice assembly stage. Since each page can be considered as a component and the invoice as the finished product, the production system for multi-page invoices can be treated as an assembly-type flowshop with parallel machines at the last two stages. Moreover, two types of sequence-dependent setup operations are considered at the second stage. The objective is to minimize the makespan for all the invoice orders. We first formulate this problem into a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). Then a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) is proposed for solving it due to its NP-hardness. To evaluate the performance of the HGA heuristic, a lower bound for the makespan is developed. Numerical experiment indicates that our algorithm can solve the problem efficiently and effectively.     

差分进化算法求解带批处理机的机器人制造单元调度问题

机器人制造单元是智能制造系统的主要载体,研究机器人制造单元的生产调度问题对于提高智能制造系统的生产效率有着重要作用.对此,研究带批处理机的混合流水线机器人制造单元调度问题.首先,针对机器人制造单元与批处理机的生产特性,建立数学优化模型;其次,设计差分进化算法对其进行求解,提出染色体组编码的概念,求解该问题的染色体组由两个染色体构成,第1条染色体确定工件在每个工序选择的机器,第2条染色体确定加工顺序以及机器人的搬运顺序;然后,设计差分变异、交叉以及选择操作;最后,进行数值实验,结果证明,针对带批处理机的机器人制造单元调度问题,差分进化算法能缩短完工时间,得到更好的解.     

Modeling realistic hybrid flexible flowshop scheduling problems

This paper aims to contribute to the recent research efforts to bridge the gap between the theory and the practice of scheduling by modelizing a realistic manufacturing environment and analyzing the effect of the inclusion of several characteristics in the problem formulation. There are several constraints and characteristics that affect the scheduling operations at companies. While these constraints are many times tackled in the literature, they are seldom considered together inside the same problem formulation. We propose a formulation along with a mixed integer modelization and some heuristics for the problem of scheduling n jobs on m stages where at each stage we have a known number of unrelated machines. The jobs might skip stages and, therefore, we have what we call a hybrid flexible flowshop problem. We also consider per machine sequence-dependent setup times which can be anticipatory and non-anticipatory along with machine lags, release dates for machines, machine eligibility and precedence relationships among jobs. Manufacturing environments like this appear in sectors like food processing, ceramic tile manufacturing and several others. The optimization criterion considered is the minimization of the makespan. The MIP model and the heuristics proposed are tested against a comprehensive benchmark and the results evaluated by advanced statistical tools that make use of decision trees and experimental designs. The results allow us to identify the constraints that increase the difficulty.     

A new heuristic for scheduling the two-stage flowshop with additional resources

This paper deals with the problem of preemptive scheduling in a two-stage flowshop with parallel unrelated machines at the first stage and a single machine at the second stage. At the first stage, jobs use some additional resources which are available in limited quantities at any time. The resource requirements are of 0–1 type. The objective is the minimization of makespan. The problem is NP-hard. Heuristic algorithms are proposed which solve to optimality the resource constrained scheduling problem at the first stage of the flowshop, and at the same time, minimize the makespan in the flowshop by selecting appropriate jobs for simultaneous processing. Several rules of job selection are considered. The performance of the proposed heuristic algorithms is analyzed by comparing solutions with the lower bound on the optimal makespan. The extensive computational experiment shows that the proposed heuristic algorithms are able to produce near-optimal solutions in short computational time.     

A note on two-stage hybrid flowshop scheduling with missing operations

The scheduling problem in a multi-stage hybrid flowshop has been the subject of considerable research. All the studies on this subject assume that each job has to be processed on all the stages, i.e., there are no missing operations for a job at any stage. However, missing operations usually exist in many real-life production systems, such as a system in a stainless steel factory investigated in this note. The studied production system in the factory is composed of two stages in series. The first stage contains only one machine while the second stage consists of two identical machines (namely a 1 × 2 hybrid flowshop). In the system, some jobs have to be processed on both stages, but others need only to be processed on the second stage. Accordingly, the addressed scheduling problem is a 1 × 2 hybrid flowshop with missing operations at the first stage. In this note, we develop a heuristic for the problem to generate a non-permutation schedule (NPS) from a given permutation schedule, with the objective of minimizing the makespan. Computational results demonstrate that the heuristic can efficiently generate better NPS solutions.     

Using two-machine flowshop with maximum lateness objective to model multimedia data objects scheduling problem for WWW applications

The multimedia data objects scheduling problem for WWW applications is modeled using the two-machine flowshop problem of minimizing maximum lateness with separate setup times. We establish three dominance relations, and propose four heuristics. Also, we conduct computational experiments to compare the performance of the proposed heuristics and that of existing ones in the literature. The results of the computational experiments show that the proposed heuristics are quite efficient.Scope and purposeA two-machine flowshop scheduling problem involves scheduling a number of jobs on the machines in order to optimize a given criterion. The majority of research assumes that setup times are negligible or can be combined with the processing times. However, the latter assumption is invalid since it may lead to more idle time on the second machine. In the literature, the separate setup times problem has been mainly addressed with the completion-time-related objective functions such as makespan. However, there are many real-life situations in which a due-date-related objective function such as maximum lateness is more appropriate. The problem with maximum lateness objective has received limited attention from researchers as indicated by a recent survey paper. In this paper, we show a real-life situation in the Internet where the two-machine flowshop problem of minimizing maximum lateness with separate setup times can be used to model the multimedia object scheduling problem. We propose new improved heuristics for this problem and compare with existing ones in the literature.     

A simulated annealing with multiple‐search paths and parallel computation for a comprehensive flowshop scheduling problem

Recent studies have demonstrated that the performance of a simulated annealing algorithm can be improved by following multiple‐search paths and parallel computation. In this paper, we use these strategies to solve a comprehensive mathematical model for a flexible flowshop lot streaming problem. In the flexible flowshop environment, a number of jobs will be processed in several consecutive production stages, and each stage may involve a certain number of parallel machines that may not be identical. Each job has to be split into several unequal sublots by following the concept of lot streaming. The sublots are to be processed in the order of the stages, and sublots of certain products may skip some stages. This complex problem also incorporates sequence‐dependent setup times, the anticipatory or nonanticipatory nature of setups, release dates for machines, and machine eligibility. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of lot streaming in hybrid flowshops, the performance of the proposed simulated annealing algorithm, and the improvements achieved using parallel computation.     

Scheduling and Lot Streaming in Flowshops with No-Wait in Process

Lot streaming involves splitting a production lot into a number of sublots, in order to allow the overlapping of successive operations, in multi-machine manufacturing systems. In no-wait flowshop scheduling, sublots are necessarily consistent, that is, they remain the same over all machines. The benefits of lot streaming include reductions in lead times and work-in-process, and increases in machine utilization rates. We study the problem of minimizing the makespan in no-wait flowshops producing multiple products with attached setup times, using lot streaming. Our study of the single product problem resolves an open question from the lot streaming literature. The intractable multiple product problem requires finding the optimal number of sublots, sublot sizes, and a product sequence for each machine. We develop a dynamic programming algorithm to generate all the nondominated schedule profiles for each product that are required to formulate the flowshop problem as a generalized traveling salesman problem. This problem is equivalent to a classical traveling salesman problem with a pseudopolynomial number of cities. We develop and computationally test an efficient heuristic for this problem. Our results indicate that solutions can quickly be found for flowshops with up to 10 machines and 50 products. Moreover, the solutions found by our heuristic provide a substantial improvement over previously published results.     

Hybrid flexible flowshops with sequence-dependent setup times and machine availability constraints

One of the common assumptions in the field of scheduling is that machines are always available in the planning horizon. This may not be true in realistic problems since machines might be busy processing some jobs left from previous production horizon, breakdowns or preventive maintenance activities. Another common assumption is the consideration of setup times as a part of processing times, while in some industries, such as printed circuit board and automobile manufacturing, not only setups are an important factor but also setup magnitude of a job depends on its immediately preceding job on the same machine, known as sequence-dependent setup times. In this paper, we consider hybrid flexible flowshops with sequence-dependent setup times and machine availability constraints caused by preventive maintenance. The optimization criterion is the minimization of makespan. Since this problem is NP-hard in the strong sense, we propose three heuristics, based on SPT, LPT and Johnson rule and two metaheuristics based on genetic algorithm and simulated annealing. Computational experiments are performed to evaluate the efficiencies of the algorithms.     

Application of neural networks to heuristic scheduling algorithms

This paper considers the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to model six different heuristic algorithms applied to the n job, m machine real flowshop scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing makespan. The objective is to obtain six ANN models to be used for the prediction of the completion times for each job processed on each machine and to introduce the fuzziness of scheduling information into flowshop scheduling. Fuzzy membership functions are generated for completion, job waiting and machine idle times. Different methods are proposed to obtain the fuzzy parameters. To model the functional relation between the input and output variables, multilayered feedforward networks (MFNs) trained with error backpropagation learning rule are used. The trained network is able to apply the learnt relationship to new problems. In this paper, an implementation alternative to the existing heuristic algorithms is provided. Once the network is trained adequately, it can provide an outcome (solution) faster than conventional iterative methods by its generalizing property. The results obtained from the study can be extended to solve the scheduling problems in the area of manufacturing.     

Scheduling with multiple servers

In this paper, we consider the problem of scheduling a set of jobs on a set of identical parallel machines. Before the processing of a job can start, a setup is required which has to be performed by a given set of servers. We consider the complexity of such problems for the minimization of the makespan. For the problem with equal processing times and equal setup times we give a polynomial algorithm. For the problem with unit setup times, m machines and m − 1 servers, we give a pseudopolynomial algorithm. However, the problem with fixed number of machines and servers in the case of minimizing maximum lateness is proven to be unary NP-hard. In addition, recent algorithms for some parallel machine scheduling problems with constant precessing times are generalized to the corresponding server problems for the case of constant setup times. Moreover, we perform a worst case analysis of two list scheduling algorithms for makespan minimization.     

A hybrid metaheuristic for the prize-collecting single machine scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times

This paper investigates a single machine scheduling problem with strong industrial background, named the prize-collecting single machine scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times. In this problem, there are n candidate jobs for processing in a single machine, each job has a weight (or profit) and a processing time, and during processing a symmetric sequence-dependent setup time exists between two consecutive jobs. Since there is a maximum available time limitation of the machine, it is generally impossible to complete the processing of all the candidate jobs within this time limitation. The objective is to find a job processing sequence of maximal job weights (or profits) over a subset of all candidate jobs whose makespan does not exceed the given time limitation. This problem can be considered as an application of the orienteering problem (OP) in the field of discrete manufacturing. We formulate this problem as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model and propose a hybrid metaheuristic combining the structures of scatter search and variable neighborhood search. Computational results on a large number of randomly generated instances with different structures show that the proposed hybrid metaheuristic outperforms CPLEX and two metaheuristics proposed for the OP.