A Multi-Agent Scheduling Approach for the Joint Scheduling of Jobs and Maintenance Operations in the Flow Shop Sequencing Problem

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a distributed approach using multi-agent paradigm for scheduling independent jobs and maintenance operations in the flowshop sequencing problem. The proposed system introduces a dialogue between two communities of agents (production and maintenance) leading to a high level of cooperation. It also provides a framework in order to react to the disturbances occurring in the workshop. This aspect is mainly concerned by corrective maintenance activities (machine breakdowns). The proposed multi-agent system is based on the integrated strategy which consists of a simultaneous scheduling of both production and preventive maintenance activities. The objective is then to optimize an objective function which takes into account both maintenance and production criterion. The main point is to show how the proposed multi-agent system is used to generate a joint production and preventive maintenance schedule that provides a better compromise between the satisfactions of respective objectives of the two functions.