A user-induced proactive-reactive scheduling tool for dynamic flow-shop environments

Abstract

This paper proposes a flexible scheduling tool for dynamic flow-shop production systems that is based on a non-preemptive version of the overlapping load adjustment approach. The developed tool adopts a novel two-phase proactive-reactive dynamic scheduling mechanism. The first phase characterises a set of possible scheduling alternatives without actually building any detailed schedule. This phase follows the earliest loading approach via exploiting the jobs’ slack times across all machines. During the second phase, the dynamic build-up of schedules takes place in a progressive manner through a user-induced module that utilises graphical displays capturing in real-time the impact of unforeseen events on the ongoing schedule. Extensive experiments involving450 randomly generated test instances of three different sizes are carried out to assess the performance of the scheduling tool. The flexibility of the tool is assessed by the number of possible scheduling alternatives offered to the end-user. The results unveiled a high number of scheduling possibilities ranging from 155 schedules for the small size instances to 96,202 schedules for the large size instances. The relatively low number of tardy jobs (0.79 jobs on average) clearly exemplifies the robustness and quality of the scheduling alternatives despite the high number of potentially available schedules.

KEYWORDS:

• Proactive-reactive scheduling
• flow-shop production system
• flexible scheduling
• dynamic environment
• load adjustment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

Research supported by the American University of Sharjah FRG Grant No FRG16-R-19.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zied Bahroun

Zied Bahroun is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the American University of Sharjah (UAE). He earned a B.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering in 1994 from the National School of Engineering of Tunis. He then completed his master's degree in Computer Science in 1996 at the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis. He then obtained his PhD degree from the University of Franche-Comté (France) in Automatic Control and Computer Science in 2000. His research interests include multi-objective optimization, evolutionary computation, supply chain management, ERP systems, production and inventory control, applied operations research, scheduling in manufacturing and healthcare, simulation, stochastic processes, materials, Industry 4.0, and internet of things applications in supply chains.

Abdulrahim Shamayleh

Abdulrahim Shamayleh received his Ph.D. in Industrial, Systems and Operations Engineering from Arizona State University. He is a Certified Supply Chain Professional and instructor from the American Association for Operations Management. He is currently an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Systems Management at the American University of Sharjah. His research has appeared in Computers & Industrial Engineering, Journal of Cleaner Production, Sustainable Cities And Society, and others. His research interests are operation research in healthcare, scheduling, supply chain management, and facilities planning and design.

Rami As’ad

Rami As'ad received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Systems Engineering and Operations Research from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, in 2003 and 2006, respectively, and a Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Industrial Engineering Department, American University of Sharjah. His primary research interests include supply chain management and mathematical modeling, where he has published several articles in a wide spectrum of journals, including the International Journal of Production Economics, the International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, Computers and Industrial Engineering, and Applied Mathematical Modelling, among others.

Rim Zakaria

Rim Zakaria graduated with a BSc. in Computer Engineering (2010) and an MSc. in Engineering Systems Managements (2016) from the American University of Sharjah. She is also a Certified ScrumMaster (2022). Rim has extensive industry experience including 4 years as an IT Analyst and Application Architect with IBM. She has been working as a Program Coordinator for the Computer Science department at Western University in London, ON, Canada since 2017 and has recently joined (2022) Western University's Technology Services as an eLearning Technology Specialist. Rim's areas of interest include eLearning technologies and data analytics & visualization.