The Concept of Genetic Algorithm Application for Scheduling Operations with Multi-resource Requirements

Abstract

The paper presents the concept of a genetic algorithm for solving the problem of scheduling production processes, in which there are operations requiring the interaction of resources from at least two, different groups of competences. The considered system is based on flexible flow shop and the objective function is associated with minimizing the flow time of tasks. The general schedule generation procedure using the genetic algorithm is presented. Three sub-chromosomes are proposed for describing an individual. First of them represents a precedence feasible order of production tasks. Numbers of parallel machines are coded by the second sub-chromosome of the individual. Numbers of production employees able to execute operation on the set of parallel machines are coded by the third sub-chromosome. The order crossover and shift mutation procedures are described for the proposed chromosome differentiation and selection. Implementation of the developed concept enables parallel planning of positions and human resources (or any groups of resources) and improve practical usability in relation to hierarchical methods of resource planning.