Improved approaches to the exact solution of the machine covering problem

Rico Walter (), Martin Wirth () and Alexander Lawrinenko ()
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Rico Walter: Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
Martin Wirth: Technische Universität Darmstadt
Alexander Lawrinenko: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Journal of Scheduling, 2017, vol. 20, issue 2, No 3, 147-164

Abstract: Abstract For the basic problem of scheduling a set of n independent jobs on a set of m identical parallel machines with the objective of maximizing the minimum machine completion time—also referred to as machine covering—we propose a new exact branch-and-bound algorithm. Its most distinctive components are a different symmetry-breaking solution representation, enhanced lower and upper bounds, and effective novel dominance criteria derived from structural patterns of optimal schedules. Results of a comprehensive computational study conducted on benchmark instances attest to the effectiveness of our approach, particularly for small ratios of n to m.

Keywords: Identical parallel machines; Machine covering; Dominance criteria; Branch-and-bound (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10951-016-0477-x

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