Title: Scheduling unrelated parallel machines with set-up consideration applying GA and response surface method

Authors: Wen-Pai Wang; Chun-Chih Chiu

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering & Management, Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung 41107, Taiwan ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan

Abstract: This paper presents a Genetic Algorithm (GA) combining with response surface method to solve Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling Problems (UPMSP) with set-up times. It focuses on different service times to consider the set-up times for scheduling problems resulted from different type of orders so as to find out the minimal total completion time. Initially the GA is applied to determine processing sequence of orders on unrelated parallel machines. Results have shown that the approach can quickly discover the approximate optimal solution. In view of the fact that parameter setting makes a significant impact on many algorithms, this paper combines experimental design with response surface method to determine related parameter level combination for GAs. The results show that suchlike combination resolved by response surface method achieve better quality and fewer times of experiment, thus enhancing resolved quality for GAs.

Keywords: genetic algorithms; GAs; unrelated parallel machines; response surface methodology; RSM; setup times; parallel machine scheduling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOI.2012.051403

International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, 2012 Vol.7 No.2/3, pp.212 - 228

Received: 10 Nov 2011
Accepted: 09 Aug 2012
Published online: 27 Dec 2014 *

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