Title: Robust scheduling for flexible job shop problems with random machine breakdowns using a quantum behaved particle swarm optimisation

Authors: Manas Ranjan Singh; S.S. Mahapatra; Ratikanta Mishra

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Technical Education and Research, Bhubaneswar 751030, India

Abstract: This paper addresses a robust schedule for a flexible job shop scheduling problem with random machine breakdown. A multi objective framework based on quantum particle swarm optimisation (QPSO) is proposed to generate the predictive schedules that can simultaneously optimise the makespan and the robust measures. The results indicate that the proposed QPSO algorithm is quite effective in reducing makespan in the event that uncertainty is encountered in terms of stochastic machine breakdown. An exhaustive experimental study is conducted to study the effect of different proposed robustness measures on the generated schedules using benchmark problems.

Keywords: flexible job shops; job shop scheduling; quantum PSO; particle swarm optimisation; QPSO; makespan reduction; robust measures; machine breakdown; random breakdowns.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2015.065969

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2015 Vol.20 No.1, pp.1 - 20

Published online: 17 Apr 2015 *

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