Benchmark Job-shop Scheduling Problems Research Articles

A novel discrete PSO algorithm for solving job shop scheduling problem to minimize makespan

In this work, a discrete version of PSO algorithm is proposed to minimize the makespan of a job-shop. A novel schedule builder has been utilized to generate active schedules. The discrete PSO is tested using well known benchmark problems available in the literature. The solution produced by the proposed algorithms is compared with best known solution published in the literature and also compared with hybrid particle swarm algorithm and variable neighborhood search PSO algorithm. The solution construction methodology adopted in this study is found to be effective in producing good quality solutions for the various benchmark job-shop scheduling problems.

Hybrid Genetic Algorithm (GA) for job shop scheduling problems and its sensitivity analysis

The Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP) is a hard combinatorial optimisation problem. This paper presents a heuristic-based Genetic Algorithm (GA) or Hybrid Genetic Algorithm (HGA) with the aim of overcoming the GA deficiency of fine tuning of solution around the optimum, and to achieve optimal or near optimal solutions for benchmark JSSP. The paper also presents a detail GA parameter analysis (also called sensitivity analysis) for a wide range of benchmark problems from JSSP. The findings from the sensitivity analysis or best possible parameter combination are then used in the proposed HGA for optimal or near optimal solutions. The experimental results of the HGA for several benchmark problems are encouraging and show that HGA has achieved optimal solutions for more than 90% of the benchmark problems considered in this paper. The presented results will provide a reference for selection of GA parameters for heuristic-based GAs for JSSP.

A Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Job-Shop Scheduling Problem

In this paper, a hybrid particle swarm algorithm is proposed to minimize the makespan of job-shop scheduling problem which is a typical non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP) hard combinatorial optimization problem. The new algorithm is based on the principle of particle swarm optimization (PSO). PSO as an evolutionary algorithm, it combines coarse global search capability (by neighboring experience) and local search ability. Simulated annealing (SA) as a neighborhood search algorithms, it has strong local search ability and can employ certain probability and can to avoid becoming trapped in a local optimum. Three neighborhood SA algorithms is designed and combined with PSO(called HPSO), for each best solution that particle find, SA is performed on it to find it’s best neighbor solution. The effectiveness and efficiency of HPSO are demonstrated by applying it to 43 benchmark job-shop scheduling problems. Comparison with other researcher’s results indicates that HPSO is a viable and effective approach for the job-shop scheduling problem.

Solving job shop scheduling problem using a hybrid parallel micro genetic algorithm

The effort of searching an optimal solution for scheduling problems is important for real-world industrial applications especially for mission-time critical systems. In this paper, a new hybrid parallel GA (PGA) based on a combination of asynchronous colony GA (ACGA) and autonomous immigration GA (AIGA) is employed to solve benchmark job shop scheduling problem. An autonomous function of sharing the best solution across the system is enabled through the implementation of a migration operator and a “global mailbox”. The solution is able to minimize the makespan of the scheduling problem, as well as reduce the computation time. To further improve the computation time, micro GA which works on small population is used in this approach. The result shows that the algorithm is able to decrease the makespan considerably as compared to the conventional GA.

A Shaking Optimization Algorithm for Solving Job Shop Scheduling Problem

In solving the Job Shop Scheduling Problem, the best solution rarely is completely random; it follows one or more rules (heuristics). The Genetic (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Simulated Annealing, and Tabu search, which belong to the Evolutionary Computations Algorithms (ECs), are not efficient enough in solving this problem as they neglect all conventional heuristics and hence they need to be hybridized with different heuristics. In this paper a new algorithm titled Shaking Optimization Algorithm is proposed that follows the common methodology of the Evolutionary Computations while utilizing different heuristics during the evolution process of the solution. The results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the GA, PSO, SA, and TS algorithms, while being a good competitor to some other hybridized techniques in solving a selected number of benchmark Job Shop Scheduling problems.

An improved constraint satisfaction adaptive neural network for job-shop scheduling

This paper presents an improved constraint satisfaction adaptive neural network for job-shop scheduling problems. The neural network is constructed based on the constraint conditions of a job-shop scheduling problem. Its structure and neuron connections can change adaptively according to the real-time constraint satisfaction situations that arise during the solving process. Several heuristics are also integrated within the neural network to enhance its convergence, accelerate its convergence, and improve the quality of the solutions produced. An experimental study based on a set of benchmark job-shop scheduling problems shows that the improved constraint satisfaction adaptive neural network outperforms the original constraint satisfaction adaptive neural network in terms of computational time and the quality of schedules it produces. The neural network approach is also experimentally validated to outperform three classical heuristic algorithms that are widely used as the basis of many state-of-the-art scheduling systems. Hence, it may also be used to construct advanced job-shop scheduling systems.

A Job Shop Scheduling Heuristic Algorithm Based on Probabilistic Model of the Search Space

The job shop scheduling problem is an NP-hard problem and conveniently formulated as Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP). Research in CSP has produced variable and value ordering heuristics techniques that can help improve the efficiency of the basic backtrack search procedure. However, the popular variable and value ordering heuristics play poor in solving the large-scale job shop scheduling problem. In this paper, a new probabilistic model of the search space was introduced which allows to estimate the reliance of an operation on the availability of a reservation, and the degree of contention among unscheduled operations for the possession of a resource over some time interval. Based on this probabilistic model, new operation and reservation ordering heuristics were defined. new operation ordering heuristic selects the operation that relies most on the most contended resource/time interval, and new reservation ordering heuristic assigns to that operation the reservation which is expected to be compatible with the largest number of survivable job schedules. Computer simulations indicate that this new algorithm yields a optimal result of FT10 benchmark job shop scheduling problem under small time cost.

Industrial applications of the ant colony optimization algorithm

The ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is a fast suboptimal meta-heuristic based on the behavior of a set of ants that communicate through the deposit of pheromone. It involves a node choice probability which is a function of pheromone strength and inter-node distance to construct a path through a node-arc graph. The algorithm allows fast near optimal solutions to be found and is useful in industrial environments where computational resources and time are limited. A hybridization using iterated local search (ILS) is made in this work to the existing heuristic to refine the optimality of the solution. Applications of the ACO algorithm also involve numerous traveling salesperson problem (TSP) instances and benchmark job shop scheduling problems (JSSPs), where the latter employs a simplified ant graph-construction model to minimize the number of edges for which pheromone update should occur, so as to reduce the spatial complexity in problem computation.

A hybrid particle swarm optimization approach for the job-shop scheduling problem

A new approximation algorithm is proposed for the problem of finding the minimum makespan in the job-shop scheduling environment. The new algorithm is based on the principle of particle swarm optimization (PSO). PSO combines local search (by self-experience) and global search (by neighboring experience), and possesses high search efficiency. Simulated annealing (SA) employs certain probability to avoid becoming trapped in a local optimum and the search process can be controlled by the cooling schedule. By reasonably combining these two different search algorithms, we develop a general, fast and easily implemented hybrid optimization algorithm; we called the HPSO. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed PSO-based algorithm are demonstrated by applying it to some benchmark job-shop scheduling problems. Comparison with other results in the literature indicates that the PSO-based algorithm is a viable and effective approach for the job-shop scheduling problem .

Pareto archived simulated annealing for job shop scheduling with multiple objectives

In this paper, the job shop scheduling problem is studied with the objectives of minimizing the makespan and the mean flow time of jobs. The simultaneous consideration of these objectives is the multi-objective optimization problem under study. A metaheuristic procedure based on the simulated annealing algorithm called Pareto archived simulated annealing (PASA) is proposed to discover non-dominated solution sets for the job shop scheduling problems. The seed solution is generated randomly. A new perturbation mechanism called segment-random insertion (SRI) scheme is used to generate a set of neighbourhood solutions to the current solution. The PASA searches for the non-dominated set of solutions based on the Pareto dominance or through the implementation of a simple probability function. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by solving benchmark job shop scheduling problem instances provided by the OR-library. The results obtained are evaluated in terms of the number of non-dominated schedules generated by the algorithm and the proximity of the obtained non-dominated front to the Pareto front.

An effective hybrid optimization strategy for job-shop scheduling problems

Simulated annealing is a naturally serial algorithm, but its behavior can be controlled by the cooling schedule. Genetic algorithm exhibits implicit parallelism and can retain useful redundant information about what is learned from previous searches by its representation in individuals in the population, but GA may lose solutions and substructures due to the disruptive effects of genetic operators and is not easy to regulate GA's convergence. By reasonably combining these two global probabilistic search algorithms, we develop a general, parallel and easily implemented hybrid optimization framework, and apply it to job-shop scheduling problems. Based on effective encoding scheme and some specific optimization operators, some benchmark job-shop scheduling problems are well solved by the hybrid optimization strategy, and the results are competitive with the best literature results. Besides the effectiveness and robustness of the hybrid strategy, the combination of different search mechanisms and structures can relax the parameter-dependence of GA and SA. Scope and purpose Job-shop scheduling problem (JSP) is one of the most well-known machine scheduling problems and one of the strongly NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. Developing effective search methods is always an important and valuable work. The scope and purpose of this paper is to present a parallel and easily implemented hybrid optimization framework, which reasonably combines genetic algorithm with simulated annealing. Based on effective encoding scheme and some specific optimization operators, the job-shop scheduling problems are well solved by the hybrid optimization strategy.