Machine scheduling with soft precedence constraints

An Zhang, Xiangtong Qi and Guanhua Li

European Journal of Operational Research, 2020, vol. 282, issue 2, 491-505

Abstract: This paper introduces a new concept, soft precedence constraint (SPC), in machine scheduling problems. Similar to the conventional precedence constraint, SPC specifies some partial order over the jobs; however, an SPC can be violated, but with a certain penalty or cost. The scheduling problem is to balance the tradeoff between the SPC violation penalty and other criteria relative to job completion times. We focus on studying a special case where SPC is defined by a bipartite network. This case is motivated by the berth allocation problem at a transshipment port, where the SPC models any missed container connections from feeder vessels to ocean-going vessels. We discuss the complexity of the problems for different scenarios and develop approximation algorithms.

Keywords: Scheduling; Precedence constraint; Soft precedence constraint; Approximation algorithm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:282:y:2020:i:2:p:491-505

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2019.09.041

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