Evolutionary generation of dispatching rule sets for complex dynamic scheduling problems

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Christoph W. Pickardt
  • Torsten Hildebrandt
  • Jürgen Branke
  • Jens Heger
  • Bernd Scholz-Reiter

We propose a two-stage hyper-heuristic for the generation of a set of work centre-specific dispatching rules. The approach combines a genetic programming (GP) algorithm that evolves a composite rule from basic job attributes with an evolutionary algorithm (EA) that searches for a good assignment of rules to work centres. The hyper-heuristic is tested against its two components and rules from the literature on a complex dynamic job shop problem from semiconductor manufacturing. Results show that all three hyper-heuristics are able to generate (sets of) rules that achieve a significantly lower mean weighted tardiness than any of the benckmark rules. Moreover, the two-stage approach proves to outperform the GP and EA hyper-heuristic as it optimises on two different heuristic search spaces that appear to tap different optimisation potentials. The resulting rule sets are also robust to most changes in the operating conditions.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Production Economics
Volume145
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)67-77
Number of pages11
ISSN0925-5273
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 09.2013
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Dispatching rules, Evolutionary algorithms, Genetic programming, Hyper-heuristics, Production scheduling, Semiconductor manufacturing
  • Engineering

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. How to combine collaboration scripts and heuristic worked examples to foster mathematical argumentation - when working memory matters
  2. An Improved Approach to the Semi-Process-Oriented Implementation of Standardised ERP-Systems
  3. Sequencing and fading worked examples and collaboration scripts to foster mathematical argumentation - working memory capacity matters for fading
  4. Exploiting linear partial information for optimal use of forecasts. With an application to U.S. economic policy
  5. Cross-case knowledge transfer in transformative research: enabling learning in and across sustainability-oriented labs through case reporting
  6. Technotopia.
  7. E-privacy concerns
  8. Restricted nonlinear approximation and singular solutions of boundary integral equations
  9. An empirical comparison of different implicit measures to predict consumer choice
  10. Optimization of waste management systems by integrating material fluxes, agents and regulatory mechanisms
  11. Lyapunov stability analysis to set up a saturating PI controller with anti-windup for a mass flow system
  12. Non-technical success factors for bioenergy projects-Learning from a multiple case study in Japan
  13. Exploring the efficacy of metabarcoding and non-target screening for detecting treated wastewater
  14. Is the market classification of risk always efficient?
  15. When, Where, and How Nature Matters for Ecosystem Services
  16. Requests for reasoning in geometrical textbook tasks for primary-level students
  17. Developing ESD-specific professional action competence for teachers: knowledge, skills, and attitudes in implementing ESD at the school level
  18. Influence of rhizobacterial volatiles on the root system architecture and the production and allocation of biomass in the model grass Brachypodium distachyon (L.) P. Beauv
  19. Monitoring of methotrexate chlorination in water
  20. Accuracy and bias of methods used for root length measurements in functional root research
  21. How to specify the structure of substituted blade-like zigzag diamondoids
  22. A specification schema for software connectors
  23. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning relations in European forests depend on environmental context.
  24. Getting an empirical hold of the sustainable university
  25. Practices and Policies from Spaces of Possibilities to Institutional Innovations
  26. Networked Disruption
  27. Land-use change differentially affects endemic, forest andopen-land butterflies in Madagascar
  28. Building a digital anchor
  29. Ästhetik und Kunst
  30. Digitale Transformation, quo vadis?
  31. Who’s afraid of the senses? Organization, management and the return of the sensorium
  32. Coming to work while sick
  33. Publikationsbasierte Dissertation?!
  34. Permeable reactive barrier technologies for groundwater remediation in Germany: Recent progress and new developments
  35. Are We Discovering or Making Concepts? Performativity in Concept Defining
  36. Length measurement and estimation in primary school
  37. Die Macht der Funktionen
  38. To assess progress in the social sciences, we should study knowledge cumulation, not disruptiveness
  39. The World is Flat: Study Guide
  40. Intentions and synergies: The cases of control and speed
  41. Towards ‘New Memoir’