Title: Unrelated parallel dedicated machine scheduling with sequence dependent setup times: an application in a textile company

Authors: Yonca Erdem Demirtas

Addresses: Department of Quantitative Methods, School of Business, Istanbul University Avcilar Campus, 34322, Avcilar Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: This study deals with a real-life scheduling problem in a textile company that produces hygienic fibres. The addressed problem is a particular case of unrelated parallel dedicated machine scheduling problems with sequence-dependent setup times. The company has two unrelated production lines. Three different types of product families with due dates need to be scheduled onto the lines. The production planning problem is solved by minimising the total tardiness and total sequence-dependent setup costs. Permutation-based solution representation is used and an initial solution is generated via dispatching rules to start searching from a promising point. Powerful single solution-based local search algorithms such as 2-opt, swap, and insertion are used to improve the solution. Finally, the proposed solution technique is developed as a decision support system made available to the company for easy and efficient production planning.

Keywords: scheduling; unrelated parallel machines; sequence-dependent setup time; local search.

DOI: 10.1504/IJADS.2022.126104

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2022 Vol.15 No.6, pp.733 - 752

Received: 01 May 2021
Accepted: 25 Jul 2021
Published online: 11 Oct 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article