An Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for the Job Shop Scheduling Problem with Random Processing Times

Due to the influence of unpredictable random events, the processing time of each operation should be treated as random variables if we aim at a robust production schedule. However, compared with the extensive research on the deterministic model, the stochastic job shop scheduling problem (SJSSP) has...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rui Zhang, Cheng Wu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2011-09-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/13/9/1708/
Description
Summary:Due to the influence of unpredictable random events, the processing time of each operation should be treated as random variables if we aim at a robust production schedule. However, compared with the extensive research on the deterministic model, the stochastic job shop scheduling problem (SJSSP) has not received sufficient attention. In this paper, we propose an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm for SJSSP with the objective of minimizing the maximum lateness (which is an index of service quality). First, we propose a performance estimate for preliminary screening of the candidate solutions. Then, the K-armed bandit model is utilized for reducing the computational burden in the exact evaluation (through Monte Carlo simulation) process. Finally, the computational results on different-scale test problems validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach.
ISSN:1099-4300