Multi-objective cloud manufacturing service selection and scheduling with different objective priorities

Abstract

In recent years, with the support of new information technology and national policies, cloud manufacturing (CMfg) has developed rapidly in China. About CMfg, scholars have conducted extensive and in-depth research, among which multi-objective service selection and scheduling (SSS) attracts increasing attention. Generally, the objectives of the SSS problem involve several aspects, such as time, cost, environment and quality. In order to select an optimal solution, the preference of a decision maker (DM) becomes key information. As one kind of typical preference information, objective priorities are less considered in current studies. So, in this paper, a multi-objective model is first constructed for the SSS with different objective priorities. Then, a two-phase method based on the order of priority satisfaction (TP-OPS) is designed to solve this problem. Finally, computational experiments are conducted for problems with different services and tasks/subtasks, as well as different preference information. The results show that the proposed TP-OPS method can achieve a balance between the maximum comprehensive satisfaction and satisfaction differences, which is conducive to the sustainable development of CMfg. In addition, the proposed method allows the preference information to be gradually clarified, which has the advantage of providing convenience to DM.