One-step production and two-step assembly scheduling in identical factories

Abstract

In this article, a production–assembly scheduling problem is presented in three steps. In the first step, the production operation is performed by dedicated parallel machines; in the second step, the assembly operation is performed by the same parallel machines, and in the third step, the post-assembly operation is performed by one machine, and these three steps exist in parallel factories. This problem is NP hard and cannot be solved in a reasonable time by mathematical models. Therefore, a mixed integer linear programming algorithm is presented for small-sized problems, and a new metaheuristic algorithm is presented for large-sized problems, by combining quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO), shortest processing time (SPT) and dominance rules, which is called the hybrid QPSOSPT dominance rules (HQSD) algorithm. Accurate parameter adjustment was achieved by analysis of variance. The HQSD algorithm was shown to obtain better results than the other algorithms.

KEYWORDS:

• Scheduling
• production and assembly
• jobs assignment
• shortest processing time

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The primary data are generated as random numbers and are available from Mohsen Torkashvand upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Kurdistan.