Abstract
The job shop scheduling problem with blocking constraints and total tardiness minimization represents a challenging combinatorial optimization problem of high relevance in production planning and logistics. Since general-purpose solution approaches struggle with finding even feasible solutions, a permutation-based heuristic method is proposed here, and the applicability of basic scheduling-tailored mechanisms is discussed. The problem is tackled by a local search framework, which relies on interchange- and shift-based operators. Redundancy and feasibility issues require advanced transformation and repairing schemes. An analysis of the embedded neighborhoods shows beneficial modes of implementation on the one hand and structural difficulties caused by the blocking constraints on the other hand. The applied simulated annealing algorithm generates good solutions for a wide set of benchmark instances. The computational results especially highlight the capability of the permutation-based method in constructing feasible schedules of valuable quality for instances of critical size and support future research on hybrid solution techniques.
Highlights
Complex scheduling problems appear in customer-oriented production environments, automated logistics systems, and railbound transportation as an everyday challenge
In line with the findings presented in the literature, intensification and diversification shall both be realized in a heuristic search procedure by appropriate moves
The analysis indicates that the proportion of cases in which the best possible neighboring schedule is not generated is less than 13%
Summary
Complex scheduling problems appear in customer-oriented production environments, automated logistics systems, and railbound transportation as an everyday challenge. The blocking job shop problem with total tardiness minimization (BJSPT) is regarded as an exemplary complex planning situation in this paper. A job needs to wait on its current machine after processing, and blocks it, until the required machine is idle Such situations occur, for instance, in the manufacturing of huge items, in railbound or pipeline-based production and logistics as well as in train scheduling environments; see, for instance [5–8]. Applied interchange- and shift-based operators are chosen as transition schemes to set up neighboring solutions. Combining these ideas causes considerable redundancy and feasibility issues.
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