Improving the solution complexity of the scheduling problem with deadlines: A general technique

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to develop improved polynomial-time approximation algorithms belonging to the family of the fully polynomial time approximation schemes (FPTAS) for a group of scheduling problems. In particular, the new technique provides a positive answer to a question posed more than three decades ago by Gens and Levner [G.V. Gens and E.V. Levner, Discrete Appl. Math. 3 (1981) 313–318]: “Can an epsilon-approximation algorithm be found for the minimization version of the job-sequencing-with-deadlines problem running with the same complexity as the algorithms for the maximization form of the problem?”