An efficient algorithm for scheduling jobs on a machine with periodic maintenance

Abstract

As machine maintenance is required in many industries, it is usually arranged in a planned schedule. In this paper, we discuss a scheduling problem where periodic maintenance and jobs are scheduled on a regular basis. In our research, a periodic maintenance sequence consists of several maintenance periods and each maintenance period is scheduled after a fixed time interval. The objective is to minimize the total flow time and the maximum tardiness. A heuristic that utilizes the theorem is proposed to solve the problem by providing a small set of efficient sequences. A decision-maker may choose one of the sequences according to his preference. We also propose a branch-and-bound algorithm is to find the optimal sequence. Computational results show that the presented heuristic is highly accurate and efficient.