Genetic algorithm based reactive scheduling in manufacturing system - advanced crossover method for tardiness minimization problems -

Unscheduled disruptions, such as delays of manufacturing processes, addition of emergent jobs and failures in manufacturing equipment, often occur in the actual manufacturing systems. However, most of the traditional scheduling researches assume that manufacturing environments are well stabilized. The manufacturing system becomes impossible for satisfying the constraints on the due dates and the make-span, when the initial schedules are delayed because of the unscheduled disruptions. The chapter discusses a reactive scheduling method based on genetic algorithm (GA) to improve an initial production schedule delayed because of unscheduled disruptions, such as delays of manufacturing processes. The chapter proposes a new GA based reactive scheduling method for tardiness minimization scheduling problems, aiming at improving the disturbed production schedule efficiently and generating suitable production schedules faster than the previous reactive scheduling method. A prototype of reactive scheduling system is developed and applied to computational experiments.