Minimization of open orders: application of a re-distribution coordination policy

Abstract

This work considers an NP-Hard scheduling problem that is fundamental to the production planning of flexible machines, to cutting pattern industries and also to the design of VLSI circuits. A new asynchronous collective search model is proposed, exploring the search space in a manner that concentrates effort onto those areas of higher perceived potential. This is done with the use of a coordination policy which enables the processes with greatest performance to act as ‘attractors’ to those processes trapped in areas of worse perceived potential. Numerical results are obtained for problems of realistic industrial size, and those results are compared to previously published optimal solutions. This comparison demonstrates the effectiveness of the method, as in 276 problems out of a set of 280 we are able to match previously reported optimal results.