A hybrid imperialist competitive algorithm for single-machine scheduling problem with linear earliness and quadratic tardiness penalties

Abstract

In this paper, we study single-machine scheduling problem when each job is considered with linear earliness and quadratic tardiness penalties with no machine idle time. Here the objective is to find the best sequence of jobs in the reasonable time. This model was studied in several researches, and some algorithms were proposed to solve it such as genetic algorithm. As the size of problem increased, such algorithms were not effective and efficient. Hence, we proposed the hybrid imperialist competitive algorithm. The proposed algorithm is based upon the imperialist competitive algorithm and genetic algorithm concepts. This algorithm was tested in problems with different sizes. The results denoted that the hybrid algorithm can solve different size of problem in reasonable time. This procedure showed its efficiency in medium- and large-sized problems as compared with other available methods.