Iterated beam search for the combined car sequencing and level scheduling problem

The level scheduling problem is concerned with the final stage of a multi-stage just-in-time production system so that different models of a product are evenly distributed in a discrete production sequence, thereby making the problem practically an unconstrained optimisation problem. The car sequencing problem, on the other hand, is a constraint satisfaction problem based on a number of options constricting the final assembly schedule. The combined car sequencing and level scheduling problem aims to find the optimal production schedule that evenly distributes different models over the planning horizon and satisfies all option constraints. This paper proposes a parametric iterated beam search algorithm for the combined problem that can be used either as a heuristic or as an exact optimisation method. The paper includes a computational study based on a 54-instance test bed that proves the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.