Multitasking Scheduling Problems with Deterioration Effect

Zhanguo Zhu,Chengbin Chu,Jinlin Li

doi:10.1155/2017/4750791

Abstract

Multitasking scheduling problems with a deterioration effect incurred by coexisting behavioral phenomena in human-related scheduling systems including deteriorating task processing times and deteriorating rate-modifying activity (DRMA) of human operators are addressed. Under the assumption of this problem, the processing of a selected task suffers from the joint effect of available but unfinished waiting tasks, the position-dependent deterioration of task processing time, and the DRMA of human operators. Traditionally, these issues have been considered separately; herein, we address their integration. We propose optimal algorithms to solve the problems to minimize makespan and the total absolute differences in completion time, respectively. Based on the analysis, some special cases and extensions are also discussed.

Highlights

During the past decade, multitasking, as a natural response to a growing number of competing activities in the workplace, has become a symbol for productivity and has attracted growing interest in the fields of behavioral psychology, cognitive engineering, and operations management [1, 2]
The main problems considered are 1|MT, DE, deteriorating rate-modifying activity (DRMA)|Cmax and 1|MT, DE, DRMA|TADC, where jobs are subject to a position-dependent deterioration effect and deteriorating rate-modifying activity (RMA) while the human operator is carrying out multitasking
If the DRMA is not allowed and the deterioration effect is job-independent, the main problem is reduced to a multitasking scheduling problem with a job-independent deterioration effect to minimize the total absolute differences in completion time, the 1|MT, DE − id|TADC problem, which has the following results

Summary

Introduction

During the past decade, multitasking, as a natural response to a growing number of competing activities in the workplace, has become a symbol for productivity and has attracted growing interest in the fields of behavioral psychology, cognitive engineering, and operations management [1, 2]. The fatigue effect here means that productivity deteriorates over time because of the tiredness of human operators and incurs the duration of task processing which becomes longer than expected. The later a human operator has a break, the longer the time he or she takes for recovering to sustain an acceptable production rate We call this a deteriorating rate-modifying activity (DRMA). As common behavioral phenomena, multitasking, the deterioration effect, and DRMA play concurrently important roles in realistic human-based scheduling systems by affecting the productivity; most prior research has concentrated on them separately. Hall et al [14] provided a practical administrative planning scenario illustrating scheduling with multitasking, the deterioration effect and DRMA of human operators were not considered. When human operators are multitasking, the deterioration effect and DRMA change the processing times remarkably, which may incur different scheduling results.

Problem Formulation and Notation

Results

Extension

Conclusions