A two-agent scheduling problem in a two-machine flowshop

Abstract

In recent years, many studies on the multi-agent scheduling problems in which agents compete for using the shared resources, have been performed. However, relatively few studies have been undertaken in the field of the multi-agent scheduling in a flowshop environment. To bridge the gap, this paper aims at addressing the two-agent scheduling problem in a two-machine flowshop. Because of the importance of delay penalties and efficient resource utilization in many manufacturing environments, the objective is to find an optimal schedule which has the minimum total tardiness for the first agent's jobs, under the makespan limitation for the second agent. Since this problem is strongly NP-hard, several theorems and properties of the problem are proposed to apply in exact and meta-heuristic methods. Also, for some instances of the problem for which exact methods cannot achieve optimal solutions in a reasonable amount of time, a tabu search algorithm is developed to achieve near-optimal solutions. Computational results of the tabu search algorithm show that the average absolute error value is lower than 0.18 percent for instances with 20 to 60 jobs in size.

A two-agent one-machine multitasking scheduling problem solving by exact and metaheuristics

“…Since then, study on the multi-agent job sequencing problem has been developed in the area of scheduling. For more discussing on two-agent or multi-agent scheduling research, the reader may refer, Mor and Mosheiov [30], Gerstl and Mosheiov [10], Kovalyovet al [22], Yin et al [51,52,53,54], Li et al [28], Zhang and Wang [56], Ahmadi-Darani et al [3] a review paper by Perez-Gonzalez and Framinan [35], and the book by Agnetis et al [2]. More recently, Yang et al [49] introduced due date assignment into a two-agent scheduling problem to minimize the completion times of given jobs.…”

Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences

“…There are many more works devoted to approximate algorithms: construction, metaheuristic ones and their hybrids. Especially interesting seem to be the works that have appeared in recent years: Ahmadi et al [1], Cheng et al [10], as well as Ardakan et al [3] and Bożejko et al [7]. There are also new, promising methods of local search, using new neighborhoods, such as the golf one (e.g.…”

Proposición de una arquitectura holónica basada en productos inteligentes para el aumento de la flexibilidad en planificación de la producción y logística.

“…One of the most widely used performance indicators to be minimized in production planning is the completion time (makespan) (Ahmadi-Darani et al, 2018;Gu et al, 2010;Topaloglu & Kilincli, 2009). This concept must be accompanied by other indicators, such as costs or failure rates in more complex models to achieve a closer version of reality.…”