Title: Uniform parallel machine scheduling problems with a truncation sum-of-logarithm-processing-times-based learning effect

Authors: Yang-Kuei Lin; Wei-Hsiang Chuang

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Systems Management, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Systems Management, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan

Abstract: In internet manufacturing, a manufacturing cloud usually deals with multiple requests at the same time. Similar problems may appear if a manufacturing cloud is equipped with some kind of intelligence and can learn to process a later job more quickly. This research considers the problem of scheduling jobs on uniform parallel machines to minimise total weighted tardiness (TWT) under a truncation sum-of-logarithm-processing-times-based learning effect. In the proposed learning model, the actual job processing time is a function that depends not only on the processing times of the jobs already processed but also on a control parameter. An iterated local search (ILS) has been proposed to solve this problem. Computational results of applying the ILS to some cases show that the proposed ILS outperforms other metaheuristics (simulated annealing and ant colony optimisation) in terms of TWT. The present research also analyses the impacts of truncation learning effects on objective values.

Keywords: parallel machine scheduling; uniform parallel machines; truncation learning effects; total weighted tardiness; TWT; internet manufacturing; manufacturing cloud; iterated local search; ILS; metaheuristics; simulated annealing; ACO; ant colony optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMS.2015.074959

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services, 2015 Vol.4 No.1, pp.37 - 53

Received: 09 May 2015
Accepted: 21 Jul 2015
Published online: 27 Feb 2016 *

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