Parallel machine scheduling with precedence constraints and setup times

TL;DR

This paper introduces new hybrid search methods for parallel machine scheduling with precedence constraints and setup times, demonstrating superior performance over existing approaches through extensive computational experiments.

Contribution

It proposes innovative combinations of limited discrepancy search, local search, dominance conditions, and lower bounds for improved scheduling solutions.

Findings

Proposed methods outperform previous approaches in most tested instances.

Hybrid methods are competitive with commercial solvers.

Results show significant improvements in scheduling efficiency.

Abstract

This paper presents different methods for solving parallel machine scheduling problems with precedence constraints and setup times between the jobs. Limited discrepancy search methods mixed with local search principles, dominance conditions and specific lower bounds are proposed. The proposed methods are evaluated on a set of randomly generated instances and compared with previous results from the literature and those obtained with an efficient commercial solver. We conclude that our propositions are quite competitive and our results even outperform other approaches in most cases.