Scheduling of Flow-Shop, Job-Shop, and Combined Scheduling Problems using MOEAs with Fixed and Variable Length Chromosomes

Abstract

This chapter introduces the novel multi-component schedul- ing problem, which is a combination of the generic flow-shop and job-shop (or open-shop) problems. This chapter first presents an overview of five common scheduling models and examples of how they are solved. A de- scription of som eo f themost common chromosome representations and genetic operators is also presented. The chapter also discusses som eo f the real-world problem st hat can bemodelled using the proposed multi- component scheduling model. In particular, the multi-component engine maintenance scheduling problem is presented and solved using a multi- objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) called GENMOP. A variable length chromosome is used by the MOEA in order to address problem specific and generic characteristics. The experimental results compare favorably to baseline values, indicating that GENMOP can effectively solve multi-component scheduling problems. Overall, this chapter intro- duces a new category of scheduling problem st hat is quite co mmon in real world problems and presents an example of the problem .B y intro- ducing this new category, which can have peculiarities that differ from other scheduling categories, researchers can build upon work done by others in this field.