Flexible job-shop scheduling problem with resource recovery constraints

Abstract

In this work, we introduce a Flexible Job-shop Scheduling Problem with Resource Recovery Constraints (FRRC). In the FRRC, besides the constraints of the classical Flexible Job-shop Scheduling Problem (FJSP), operations may require resources to be processed. The resources are available in batches and a recovery time is required between each batch. This problem is inspired by a real situation faced by a brewing company where different yeasts are available in a limited quantity and are recovered only once they have been completely used. The objective is to schedule the operations such that the makespan is minimised. A mathematical model and a metaheuristic based on a General Variable Neighborhood Search is proposed for the solution of the FRRC. Computational results over a large set of instances, adapted from the FJSP literature, are presented.

Keywords:

• flexible job-shop scheduling problem
• resource constraints
• resource recovery
• variable neighbourhood search
• makespan

Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript.

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACyT). Jobish Vallikavungal Devassia received a Ph.D. fellowship from the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACyT) [register number 385986].