This paper investigates a scheduling problem on a single machine with maintenance, in which the starting time of the maintenance is given in advance but its duration depends on the load of the machine before the maintenance. The goal is to minimize the makespan. We formulate it as an integer programming model and show that it is NP-hard in the ordinary sense. Then, we propose an FPTAS and point out that a special case is polynomial solvable. Finally, we design fast heuristic algorithms to solve the scheduling problem. Numerical experiments are implemented to evaluate the performance of the proposed heuristic algorithms. The results show the proposed heuristic algorithms are effective.

We consider the online (over time) scheduling of equal length jobs on a bounded parallel batch machine with batch capacitybto minimize the time by which all jobs have been delivered with limited restart. Here, “restart” means that a running batch may be interrupted, losing all the work done on it, and jobs in the interrupted batch are then released and become independently unscheduled jobs, called restarted jobs. “Limited restart” means that a running batch which contains some restarted jobs cannot be restarted again. Whenb=2, we propose a best possible online algorithmH(b=2)with a competitive ratio of1+α, whereαis the positive solution of2α(1+α)=1. Whenb≥3, we present a best possible online algorithmH(b≥3)with a competitive ratio of1+β, whereβis the positive solution ofβ(1+β)2=1.