Estimating Job Flow-Times in a Job Shop for Contractually Negotiated Due-Dates

One of the most important aspects of job shop planning is the contract negotiation process. In this process the job shop vendor must negotiate a job due-date acceptable to both job shop and the customer. Failure to obtain reasonably accurate predictions of the job completion time can result in penalties and/or lost future sales for the job shop. As such, estimation of job flow-times is critical to successful job shop operation. This paper presents a network modelling approach to the difficult and complex task of estimating job flow-times not previously presented in the literature. The approach is demonstrated via a case example where the system model is developed as a Q-GERT network and simulation results are obtained.     

A continuous-time search model with job switch and jumps

We study a new search problem in continuous time. In the traditional approach, the basic formulation is to maximize the expected (discounted) return obtained by taking a job, net of search cost incurred until the job is taken. Implicitly assumed in the traditional modeling is that the agent has no job at all during the search period or her decision on a new job is independent of the job situation she is currently engaged in. In contrast, we incorporate the fact that the agent has a job currently and starts searching a new job. Hence we can handle more realistic situation of the search problem. We provide optimal decision rules as to both quitting the current job and taking a new job as well as explicit solutions and proofs of optimality. Further, we extend to a situation where the agent’s current job satisfaction may be affected by sudden downward jumps (e.g., de-motivating events), where we also find an explicit solution; it is rather a rare case that one finds explicit solutions in control problems using a jump diffusion.     

Single-machine scheduling with logarithm deterioration

Traditionally, job processing times are assumed to be known and fixed; however, there are many situations in which a job that is processed later consumes more time than the same job when it is processed earlier. This is known as deteriorating jobs scheduling in the literature. Most of the research in deteriorating jobs scheduling assumes that the actual job processing time is a linear function of its starting time. Thus, the actual job processing times might increase significantly if the number of jobs or the job sizes increase. Motivated by this limitation, this paper addresses a new deterioration model where the actual job processing time is a function of the logarithm of the job processing times already processed. Under the proposed model, we provide the optimal solutions for some single-machine problems.     

一个非常规目标函数的单机随机调度的最优策略

本文考虑了n个工件在同一台机器上加工的调度问题 ,其中工件的加工时间和交货期都是具有任意分布的随机变量 .我们考虑了一个非常规目标函数 ,其中工件的权数与平均加工时间成比例 .在工件的交货期与加工时间满足相容条件下 ,得到了个简单的最优排序策略 .     

Complexity of the job insertion problem in multi-stage scheduling

The job insertion problem in multi-stage scheduling is: given a schedule for n jobs and an additional job, find a feasible insertion of the additional job into the schedule that minimizes the resulting makespan. We prove that finding the optimal job insertion is NP-hard for flow shops and open shops.     

Job sequencing and due date assignment in a single machine shop with uncertain processing times

This paper considers due date assignment and sequencing for multiple jobs in a single machine shop. The processing time of each job is assumed to be uncertain and is characterized by a mean and a variance with no knowledge of the entire distribution. A heuristic procedure is developed to find job sequence and due date assignment to minimize a linear combination of three penalties: penalty on job earliness, penalty on job tardiness, and penalty associated with long due date assignment. Numerical experiments indicate that the performance of the procedure is stable and robust to job processing time distributions. In addition, the performance improves when the means and variances of job processing times are uncorrelated or negatively correlated or when the penalty of a long due date assignment is significant.     

Single-machine scheduling with deteriorating functions for job processing times

In many realistic scheduling settings a job processed later consumes more time than when it is processed earlier – this phenomenon is known as scheduling with deteriorating jobs. In the literature on deteriorating job scheduling problems, majority of the research assumed that the actual job processing time of a job is a function of its starting time. In this paper we consider a new deterioration model where the actual job processing time of a job is a function of the processing times of the jobs already processed. We show that the single-machine scheduling problems to minimize the makespan and total completion time remain polynomially solvable under the proposed model. In addition, we prove that the problems to minimize the total weighted completion time, maximum lateness, and maximum tardiness are polynomially solvable under certain agreeable conditions.     

A heuristic for minimizing the expected makespan in two-machine flow shops with consistent coefficients of variation

The paper deals with the classical problem of minimizing the makespan in a two-machine flow shop. When the job processing times are deterministic, the optimal job sequence can be determined by applying Johnson’s rule. When they are independent and exponential random variables, Talwar’s rule yields a job sequence that minimizes the makespan stochastically.Assuming that the job processing times are independently and Weibull distributed random variables, we present a new job sequencing rule that includes both Johnson’s and Talwar’s rules as special cases. The proposed rule is applicable as a heuristic whenever the job processing times are characterized by their means and the same coefficient of variation. Simulation results show that it leads to very encouraging results when the expected makespan is minimized.     

Generalization of Johnson's and Talwar's scheduling rules in two-machine stochastic flow shops

The paper deals with the classical problem of minimizing the makespan in a two-machine flow shop. When the job processing times are deterministic, the optimal job sequence can be determined by applying Johnson's rule. When they are independent and exponential random variables, Talwar's rule yields a job sequence that minimizes the makespan stochastically. Assuming that the random job processing times are independent and Gompertz distributed, we propose a new scheduling rule that is a generalization of both Johnson's and Talwar's rules. We prove that our rule yields a job sequence that minimizes the makespan stochastically. Extensions to m-machine proportionate stochastic flow shops, two-machine stochastic job shops, and stochastic assembly systems are indicated.     

制造型企业基层管理者工作满意度对工作倦怠的影响实证分析

本文旨在探讨制造型企业基层管理者工作满意度对工作倦怠的影响。先运用2次预调查的数据分别对MBI-GS和工作满意度量表进行了探索性和验证性因素分析,然后利用验证的量表对21家制造型企业进行了调查。相关分析表明,工作满意度及其4个维度工作任务、领导行为、薪酬与工作环境、晋升与发展同情绪衰竭和消极怠慢都呈显著负相关,同职业效能感都呈显著正相关。分层回归分析表明,工作满意度的4个维度对消极怠慢都有显著的负向影响,对职业效能感都有显著的正向影响;领导行为、工作任务、薪酬与工作环境对情绪衰竭都有显著的负向影响。在工作满意度4个维度中,领导行为对情绪衰竭和消极怠慢的影响最大,工作任务对职业效能感的影响最大。     

Batch scheduling with controllable setup and processing times to minimize total completion time

We study a problem of scheduling n jobs on a single machine in batches. A batch is a set of jobs processed contiguously and completed together when the processing of all jobs in the batch is finished. Processing of a batch requires a machine setup time dependent on the position of this batch in the batch sequence. Setup times and job processing times are continuously controllable, that is, they are real-valued variables within their lower and upper bounds. A deviation of a setup time or job processing time from its upper bound is called a compression. The problem is to find a job sequence, its partition into batches, and the values for setup times and job processing times such that (a) total job completion time is minimized, subject to an upper bound on total weighted setup time and job processing time compression, or (b) a linear combination of total job completion time, total setup time compression, and total job processing time compression is minimized. Properties of optimal solutions are established. If the lower and upper bounds on job processing times can be similarly ordered or the job sequence is fixed, then O(n³ log n) and O(n⁵) time algorithms are developed to solve cases (a) and (b), respectively. If all job processing times are fixed or all setup times are fixed, then more efficient algorithms can be devised to solve the problems.     

Introducing Undergraduates to the Spirit of OR whilst Imparting Substantive Skills

This paper presents analytical expressions for the moments of job flow time in a job shop by computing the moments of a random number of random variables assuming that the job shop satisfies the sufficient conditions of the Jackson decomposition principle. The mathematical equivalence of the proposed method to the Laplace transform method is shown and then demonstrated in a simple example. Then, expressions for the moments of job flow time in more realistic (and more complex) job shop settings are derived by computing the moments of a random number of random variables, provided that expressions for the moments of job flow time are available for the corresponding single stage shop. It is shown that the analytical expressions developed are exact as long as the assumptions of the Jackson decomposition principle hold. Any violation of these assumptions makes the derived expressions approximations, and their accuracy should be tested by simulation.     

农民工的中等职业教育、在职培训与工资——基于校正多元样本选择偏差的分析

将雇主提供一年期及以上合同的工作作为稳定就业,将农民工的就业状态分为稳定就业、非稳定就业、未就业三种,在校正多元样本选择偏差的基础上估计了农民工稳定就业的工资方程和非稳定就业的工资方程,重点分析了中等职业教育和在职培训对农民工工资的影响.结果表明,中等职业教育对农民工获得稳定就业具有显著的正向影响,中等职业教育和在职培训对农民工稳定就业和非稳定就业的工资均具有正向影响,但对稳定就业工资的影响要显著大于对非稳定就业工资的影响.因此,政府应当继续加大农村地区职业教育的投入,同时鼓励用工企业对农民工开展与工作技能相关的在职培训,从而使农民工获得更为稳定的就业和更高的工资水平,顺利实现市民身份的转换.     

A novel job search problem in hybrid uncertain environment

This paper investigates a novel job search problem in a hybrid uncertain environment. Hybrid uncertainty consists of the randomness in search process and the fuzziness of offered wage. The expected value criterion and the risk tolerance criterion are designed for the job searcher to accept or reject the job offer. Under these two criteria, computing formulas to calculate the expected return of the job searcher are presented. Simultaneously, the average search times and the average chances that search returns exceed reservation wages are provided. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the relationships between the expected returns of the job searcher under two criteria, and the relationships between two average chances as well.     

Single-machine scheduling problems with past-sequence-dependent delivery times and position-dependent processing times

This paper considers single-machine scheduling problems with job delivery times where the actual job processing time of a job is defined by a function dependent on its position in a schedule. We assume that the job delivery time is proportional to the job waiting time. We investigate the minimization problems of the sum of earliness, tardiness, and due-window-related cost, the total absolute differences in completion times, and the total absolute differences in waiting times on a single-machine setting. The polynomial time algorithms are proposed to optimally solve the above objective functions. We also investigate some special cases of the problem under study and show that they can be optimally solved by lower order algorithms.     

Family sequencing and cooperation

This paper analyzes a single-machine scheduling problem with family setup times both from an optimization and a cost allocation perspective. In a family sequencing situation jobs are processed on a single machine, there is an initial processing order on the jobs, and every job within a family has an identical cost function that depends linearly on its completion time. Moreover, a job does not require a setup when preceded by another job from the same family while a family specific setup time is required when a job follows a member of some other family.     

Job scheduling, cooperation, and control

This paper studies one machine job scheduling situations where clients can have more than one job to be processed and where a job can be of interest for different players. Corresponding cooperative games are introduced and a result on balancedness is provided.     

加工时间是开工时间线性分段函数的单机总误工问题

研究工件加工时间是开工时间的线性分段函数的单机排序问题,其中工件的加工时间是开工时间的线性增加函数,但是有一个上界,在时刻T(T是已知常数)以后开始加工的工件,其加工时间不再因开工时间的推迟而增大,优化的目标是极小化总误工工件数.当工件的工期与加工时间满足某种一致性关系的时候,不管工件的加工时间是开工时间的简单线性分段函数,还是其基本加工时间是与恶化率有关的分段线性函数,证明这两种情况都是多项式时间可解的.     

下岗--再就业问题的优化

综合考虑企业与社会的总体利益,根据经济学原理,建立下岗—再就业率的优化模型,对再就业工程问题的解决有参考价值.     

Isomorphic scheduling problems

We consider general properties of isomorphic scheduling problems that constitute a new class of pairs of mutually related scheduling problems. Any such a pair is composed of a scheduling problem with fixed job processing times and its time-dependent counterpart with processing times that are proportional-linear functions of the job starting times. In order to introduce the class formally, first we formulate a generic scheduling problem with fixed job processing times and define isomorphic problems by a one-to-one transformation of instances of the generic problem into instances of time-dependent scheduling problems with proportional-linear job processing times. Next, we prove basic properties of isomorphic scheduling problems and show how to convert polynomial algorithms for scheduling problems with fixed job processing times into polynomial algorithms for proportional-linear counterparts of the original problems. Finally, we show how are related approximation algorithms for isomorphic problems. Applying the results, we establish new worst-case results for time-dependent parallel-machine scheduling problems and prove that many single- and dedicated-machine time-dependent scheduling problems with proportional-linear job processing times are polynomially solvable.