Integration of genetic algorithm and Gantt chart for job shop scheduling in distributed manufacturing systems

Abstract

In a distributed manufacturing environment, jobs in a batch could usually be manufactured in several available factories and thus have multiple alternative process plans. This paper presents a new approach to determine good combinations of factories (process plans) to manufacture the jobs and in the meantime generate good operation schedules. A genetic algorithm (GA), integrated with Gantt chart (GC), is proposed to derive the factory combination and schedule. The integration of GA-GC is proved to be efficient in solving small-sized or medium-sized scheduling problems for a distributed manufacturing system. Multiple objectives can be achieved, including minimizing makespan, job tardiness, or manufacturing cost. An illustrative example is given to demonstrate and evaluate the performance of the GA-GC approach. © 2007.