Simulation Optimization for the Stochastic Economic Lot Scheduling Problem

We study simulation optimization methods for the stochastic economic lot scheduling problem. In contrast to prior research, we focus on methods that treat this problem as a black box. Based on a large-scale numerical study, we compare approximate dynamic programming with a global search for parameters of simple control policies. We propose two value function … Read more

A biased random-key genetic algorithm for job-shop scheduling

This paper presents a local search, based on a new neighborhood for the job-shop scheduling problem, and its application within a biased random-key genetic algorithm. Schedules are constructed by decoding the chromosome supplied by the genetic algorithm with a procedure that generates active schedules. After an initial schedule is obtained, a local search heuristic, based … Read more

A biased random-key genetic algorithm for job-shop scheduling

This paper presents a local search, based on a new neighborhood for the job-shop scheduling problem, and its application within a biased random-key genetic algorithm. Schedules are constructed by decoding the chromosome supplied by the genetic algorithm with a procedure that generates active schedules. After an initial schedule is obtained, a local search heuristic, based … Read more

Job-Shop Scheduling in a Body Shop

We study a generalized job-shop problem called the body shop scheduling problem (bssp). This problem arises from the industrial application of welding in a car body production line, where possible collisions between industrial robots have to be taken into account. bssp corresponds to a job-shop problem where the operations of a job have to follow … Read more

New VNS heuristic for Total Flowtime Flowshop Scheduling Problem

This paper develops a new VNS approach to Permutational Flow shop Scheduling Problem with Total Flow time criterion. There are many hybrid approaches inthe problem’s literature, that make use of VNS internally, usually applying job insert neighbourhood followed by job interchange neighbourhood. In this study different ways to combine both neighbourhoods were examined. All tests … Read more

Cost-sharing mechanisms for scheduling under general demand settings

We investigate cost-sharing mechanisms for scheduling cost-sharing games. We assume that the demand is general—that is, each player can be allocated one of several levels of service. We show how to design mechanisms for these games that are weakly group strategyproof, approximately budget-balanced, and approximately efficient, using approximation algorithms for the underlying scheduling problems. We … Read more

Symmetry in Scheduling Problems

The presence of symmetry is common in certain types of scheduling problems. Symmetry can occur when one is scheduling a collection of jobs on multiple identical machines, or if one is determining production schedules for identical machines. General symmetry-breaking methods can be strengthened by taking advantage of the special structure of the symmetry group in … Read more

Robust Unit Commitment Problem with Demand Response and Wind Energy

To improve the efficiency in power generation and to reduce the greenhouse gas emission, both Demand Response (DR) strategy and intermittent renewable energy have been proposed or applied in electric power systems. However, the uncertainty and the generation pattern in wind farms and the complexity of demand side management pose huge challenges in power system … Read more

Stochastic Sequencing of Surgeries for a Single Surgeon Operating in Parallel Operating Rooms

We develop algorithms for a stochastic two-machine single-server sequencing problem with waiting time, idle time and overtime costs. Scheduling surgeries for a single surgeon operating in two parallel operating rooms (ORs) motivates the work. The basic idea is that staff perform cleanup and setup in one OR while the surgeon is operating in the other. … Read more

A branch-and-price algorithm for multi-mode resource leveling

Resource leveling is a variant of resource-constrained project scheduling in which a non-regular objective function, the resource availability cost, is to be minimized. We present a branch-and-price approach together with a new heuristic to solve the more general turnaround scheduling problem. Besides precedence and resource constraints, also availability periods and multiple modes per job have … Read more