The course scheduling problem at Lufthansa Technical Training

Lufthansa Technical Training GmbH (LTT) performs training courses for Lufthansa Technik AG as well as for several other international airlines. Courses of about 670 different types are offered of which several hundred take place each year. The course scheduling problem faced by LTT is to construct a yearly schedule which maximizes the profit margin incurred while meeting a variety of complex precedence, temporal, and resource-related constraints. A “good” operational schedule should also meet a number of additional subordinate objectives. We formalize the problem and develop a heuristic scheme along with several priority rules, as well as a local search algorithm to determine well-suited weights for weighted composite rules. The operational planning situation of 1996 served as our major test instance; additional test instances were constructed by modifying this data. Several computational experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the algorithms. It turned out that the best so-found schedule is substantially better in terms of the profit margin incurred than the solution manually constructed by LTT.     

Fast neighborhood search for the single machine total weighted tardiness problem

Most successful heuristics for solving 1||∑w_jT_j are based on swap moves. We present an algorithm which improves the complexity of searching the swap neighborhood from O(n³) to O(n²). We show that this result also improves the complexity of the recently developed dynasearch heuristics.     

基于遗传禁忌算法的双资源约束下并行生产线调度研究

并行生产线调度问题兼有并行机器和流程车间调度问题的特点,是一类新型的调度问题。在考虑遗传算法早熟收敛特性和禁忌搜索法自适应优点的基础上,将遗传算法和禁忌搜索法结合起来,提出了基于遗传算法和禁忌搜索算法的双资源并行作业车间的调度优化问题算法,即考虑到了产品的调度受到机器、工人等资源制约的影响,对算法中种群的构造,适应度计算,遗传操作等方面进行了研究,最后给出了实例仿真和结论。     

Optimal intensity control of a multi-class queue

We study a mixed problem of optimal scheduling and input and output control of a single server queue with multi-classes of customers. The model extends the classical optimal scheduling problem by allowing the general point processes as the arrival and departure processes and the control of the arrival and departure intensities. The objective of our scheduling and control problem is to minimize the expected discounted inventory cost over an infinite horizon, and the problem is formulated as an intensity control. We find the well-knownc is the optimal solution to our problem.Supported in part by NSF under grant ECS-8658157, by ONR under contract N00014-84-K-0465, and by a grant from AT&T Bell Laboratories.The work was done while the author was a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.     

Minimum concave cost production system: A further generalization of multi-echelon model

We will consider a concave minimization problem associated with a series production system in which raw material is processed inm consecutive facilities. The products at some facility are either sent to the next facility or stocked in the warehouse. The amount of demand for the final products during periodi, i = 1,,n, are known in advance. Our problem is to minimize the sum of processing, holding and backlogging cost, all of which are assumed to be concave.The origin of this model is the classical economic lot size problem of Wagner and Whitin and was extensively studied by Zangwill. This model is very important from the theoretical as well as practical point of view and this is one of the very rare instances in which polynomial time algorithm has been constructed for concave minimization problems.The purpose of this paper is to extend the model further to the situation in which time lag is associated with processing at each facility. We will propose an efficient O(n ⁴ m) algorithm for this class of problems.     

Semi‐classical formulation of time‐dependent discrete variable representation method

In this article, we apply a novel time‐dependent discrete variable representation (TDDVR) method proposed by Barkakaty and Adhikari to investigate tunneling through an Eckart barrier. This semi‐classical method is theoretically rigorous and straightforward to implement. Among the TDDVR formulations, this report presents the first derivation of a rigorous form of quantum force (QF) for the present perspective. The validity of this semi‐classical approach is demanded based on the excellent agreement of the tunneling probability with the corresponding quantum results. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2004     

Complexity of flow time minimization in a crossdock truck scheduling problem with asymmetric handover relations

We address a novel truck scheduling problem arising in crossdocking logistics, in which inbound trucks carry items (pallets) which must be sorted and loaded onto outbound trucks. We minimize the utilisation of the warehouse by focusing on the synchronisation between the different related trucks. The problem is to assign the trucks to the doors of the warehouse and sequence them, in order to minimize the total time spent in the system by the pallets. We discuss the complexity of the problem, showing that even with a single door the problem is NP-hard in general, and discuss some special cases.     

两台自私型机器上自私工件排序的PoA紧界

本文研究了两台自私型机器上有自私型工件的关于二元均衡的排序问题。对任意工件序列$L$, 证明了二元均衡排序的PoA的紧界为$\frac{8}{7}$。如果工件尺寸在区间$[1, r](r\ge1)$内, 得到了二元均衡排序的PoA的紧界为关于$r$的分段线性函数。     

“限时服务规则”下的复线船闸多目标调度优化

针对现有船舶过闸排队规则的欠缺,基于“限时服务规则”,构建复线船闸多目标双层优化调度模型:上层模型用于获得两个闸室安全区域的船舶排布可行方案;下层模型用于获得不同船舶排布可行方案的优化闸次数。下层模型分两个阶段完成:对符合“限时服务规则”的船舶,构建以闸次最少为目标的0-1规划模型,获得此类船舶安排的闸次;对其余船舶按照“先到先服务规则”,构建以闸次最少、闸室利用率最大为目标的多目标决策模型,获得不同船舶排布可行方案应该安排的频次。以位于江苏省干线航道上的某复线船闸某日24小时内过闸船舶的数据为例,计算结果表明:采用本文优化模型获得的优化方案与“经验编排方式”相比,两座船闸各节约2个闸次,两个船闸的平均闸室利用率分别提高了3.66和4.72个百分点。     

Single machine group scheduling with ordered criteria

The single machine group scheduling problem is considered. Jobs are classified into several groups on the basis of group technology, i.e. jobs of the same group have to be processed jointly. A machine set-up time independent of the group sequence is needed between each two consecutive groups. A schedule specifies the sequence of groups and the sequence of jobs in each group. The quality of a schedule is measured by the criteriaF ₁, ...,F _m ordered by their relative importance. The objective is to minimize the least important criterionF _m subject to the schedule being optimal with respect to the more important criterionF _m–1 which is minimized on the set of schedules minimizing criterionF _m–2 and so on. The most important criterion isF ₁, which is minimized on the set of all feasible schedules. An approach to solve this multicriterion problem in polynomial time is presented if functionsF ₁, ...,F _m have special properties. The total weighted completion time and the total weighted exponential time are the examples of functionsF ₁, ...,F _m–1 and the maximum cost is an example of functionF _m for which our approach can be applied.The research of the authors was partially supported by a KBN Grant No. 3 P 406 003 05, the Fundamental Research Fund of Belarus, Project N 60-242, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Project Schema, respectively. The paper was completed while the first author was visiting the University of Melbourne.