EvoDR: Evolving Dispatching Rules via Large Language Model for Dynamic Flexible Assembly Flow Shop Scheduling

TL;DR

EvoDR leverages large language models to evolve adaptive dispatching rules for dynamic flexible assembly flow shop scheduling, improving responsiveness and robustness over existing methods.

Contribution

This work introduces a novel LLM-based framework that integrates algorithm design and scheduling knowledge for evolving dispatching rules in complex manufacturing environments.

Findings

EvoDR achieves lower average tardiness than state-of-the-art approaches.

It outperforms expert-designed methods across 480 diverse instances.

The framework demonstrates superior robustness under various resource and disturbance conditions.

Abstract

Dynamic flexible assembly flow shop scheduling with multi-product delivery is a critical combinatorial problem, characterized by kitting supply and machine flexibility. Genetic programming is widely used to automatically generate dispatching rules, enabling responsive scheduling that reduces manual effort while meeting high responsiveness demands. However, these methods are dependent on fixed terminal sets and have weak interpretability. In this article, we develop an evolving dispatching rules framework (EvoDR) that leverages the semantic understanding and generation capabilities of large language models to achieve cross-domain integration of algorithm design and scheduling knowledge. Firstly, multi-stage assembly supply decisions are modeled as priority sorting of directed edges based on heterogeneous graphs. A dual-expert co-evolution mechanism is implemented, where LLM-A generates code while LLM-S conducts scheduling analysis and reflection. Guided by improvements in hybrid evaluation, adaptive rules that fit dynamic features are continuously evolved. Experimental results show that the EvoDR achieves lower average tardiness than state-of-the-art approaches. In 24 scenarios with different resource configurations and disturbance levels totaling 480 instances, it consistently outperforms expert-designed competitors, demonstrating superior robustness.