Title: A biological intelligent scheduling algorithm for scheduling with batch size and non-cutting time consideration

Authors: Yaqin Zhou, Beizhi Li, Jianguo Yang

Addresses: College of Mechanical Engineering, Donghua University, 1882 Yan'an Western Road, Shanghai 200051, China. ' College of Mechanical Engineering, Donghua University, 1882 Yan'an Western Road, Shanghai 200051, China. ' College of Mechanical Engineering, Donghua University, 1882 Yan'an Western Road, Shanghai 200051, China

Abstract: Non-cutting time or auxiliary time may not be ignored in solving job shop scheduling problems, which includes the time for transportation or transferring of job pieces and for adjustment of cutting tools and fixtures, etc. while considering batch that can also reduce the number of transporting and adjusting times. In this paper, a complicated scheduling problem is studied, which fully considers batch size, the available time of jobs and non-cutting time as the necessary operating conditions based on practical production. Firstly, a model of this problem is given, along with a biological immune algorithm for solving it. Then the key techniques for realising the intelligent algorithm are introduced, including the design of antibody encoding, the computation and optimisation method of the starting time of each job, and the operation of crossover and mutation. Results from the trial solutions of the problem with considerations of non-cutting time, batch size and multiconstraints show that the biological intelligent scheduling algorithm proposed is effective in solving this kind of scheduling problem.

Keywords: intelligent scheduling; batch size; non-cutting time; biological immunity; auxiliary time; job shop scheduling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2007.011852

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2007 Vol.10 No.2/3, pp.247 - 260

Published online: 28 Dec 2006 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article