Flexible scheduling in a machining center through genetic algorithms

In this paper, as a practical application, we focus on a scheduling problem of a machining center which produces a variety of parts with a monthly processing plan. In order to take account of flexibility, such as partial troubles of a machining center, urgent orders and so forth, some parameters which reflect the decision makerʹs judgements for due-dates are introduced into objective functions of scheduling problems. Realizing that a direct application of conventional simple genetic algorithms to the formulated problems does not always give acceptable results, we introduce a genetic algorithm which is suitable for the formulated scheduling problems. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through some numerical simulations.