A fuzzy multi-objective programming for scheduling of weighted jobs on a single machine

Abstract

This paper considers a classic model of weighted single machine scheduling problem and aims to improve it to a real-world application through fuzzy set theory. For this purpose, processing times and due dates of jobs are defined as fuzzy numbers. In the proposed model, two objectives are considered to be minimized: average tardiness and number of tardy jobs. The objectives are converted into fuzzy statement through fuzzy arithmetic. Because the problem is NP-hard, it is proposed to solve the model through three well-known meta-heuristic algorithms as Simulated Annealing, Tabu Search, and Genetic Algorithm albeit with some modifications. Comparative analysis of algorithms is attainable through different experimented results on generated benchmark problems with different sizes and difficulties. Efficiency of the developed algorithms is analyzed on the different versions of the model which come from the assumption of different parameters and/or components. Algorithms' behaviors to managerial insights are also considered in some sensitivity analysis experiments. The obtained results show the applicability of the proposed model in real-world scheduling problems.