Stochastic Scheduling

Stochastic scheduling is in the area of production scheduling. There is a dearth of work that analyzes the variability of schedules. In a stochastic environment, in which the processing time of a job is not known with certainty, a schedule is typically analyzed based on the expected value of a performance measure. This book addresses this problem and presents algorithms to determine the variability of a schedule under various machine configurations and objective functions. It is intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in manufacturing, operations management, applied mathematics, and computer science, and it is also a good reference book for practitioners. Computer software containing the algorithms is provided on an accompanying website for ease of student and user implementation.

This volume contains the proceedings of an Advanced Study and Re search Institute on Theoretical Approaches to Scheduling Problems. The Institute was held in Durham, England, from July 6 to July 17, 1981. It was attended by 91 participants from fifteen different countries. The format of the Institute was somewhat unusual. The first eight of the ten available days were devoted to an Advanced Study Insti tute, with lectures on the state of the art with respect to deter ministic and stochastic scheduling models and on the interface between these two approaches. The last two days were occupied by an Advanced Research Institute, where recent results and promising directions for future research, especially in the interface area, were discussed. Altogether, 37 lectures were delivered by 24 lecturers. They have all contributed to these proceedings, the first part of which deals with the Advanced Study Institute and the second part of which covers the Advanced Research Institute. Each part is preceded by an introduction, written by the editors. While confessing to a natural bias as organizers, we believe that the Institute has been a rewarding and enjoyable event for everyone concerned. We are very grateful to all those who have contributed to its realization.

Many interesting and important results on stochastic scheduling problems have been developed in recent years, with the aid of probability theory. This book provides a comprehensive and unified coverage of studies in stochastic scheduling. The objective is two-fold: (i) to summarize the elementary models and results in stochastic scheduling, so as to offer an entry-level reading material for students to learn and understand the fundamentals of this area and (ii) to include in details the latest developments and research topics on stochastic scheduling, so as to provide a useful reference for researchers and practitioners in this area. Optimal Stochastic Scheduling is organized into two parts: Chapters 1-4 cover fundamental models and results, whereas Chapters 5-10 elaborate on more advanced topics. More specifically, Chapter 1 provides the relevant basic theory of probability and then introduces the basic concepts and notation of stochastic scheduling. In Chapters 2 and 3, the authors review well-established models and scheduling policies, under regular and irregular performance measures, respectively. Chapter 4 describes models with stochastic machine breakdowns. Chapters 5 and 6 introduce, respectively, the optimal stopping problems and the multi-armed bandit processes, which are necessary for studies of more advanced subjects in subsequent chapters. Chapter 7 is focused on optimal dynamic policies, which allow adjustments of policies based on up-to-date information. Chapter 8 describes stochastic scheduling with incomplete information in the sense that the probability distributions of random variables contain unknown parameters, which can however be estimated progressively according to updated information. Chapter 9 is devoted to the situation where the processing time of a job depends on the time when it is started. Lastly, in Chapter 10 the authors look at several recent models beyond those surveyed in the previous chapters.

Project planning, scheduling, and control are regularly used in business and the service sector of an economy to accomplish outcomes with limited resources under critical time constraints. To aid in solving these problems, network-based planning methods have been developed that now exist in a wide variety of forms, cf. Elmaghraby (1977) and Moder et al. (1983). The so-called "classical" project networks, which are used in the network techniques CPM and PERT and which represent acyclic weighted directed graphs, are able to describe only projects whose evolution in time is uniquely specified in advance. Here every event of the project is realized exactly once during a single project execution and it is not possible to return to activities previously carried out (that is, no feedback is permitted). Many practical projects, however, do not meet those conditions. Consider, for example, a production process where some parts produced by a machine may be poorly manufactured. If an inspection shows that a part does not conform to certain specifications, it must be repaired or replaced by a new item. This means that we have to return to a preceding stage of the production process. In other words, there is feedback. Note that the result of the inspection is that a certain percentage of the parts tested do not conform. That is, there is a positive probability (strictly less than 1) that any part is defective.

This new edition provides an up-to-date coverage of important theoretical models in the scheduling literature as well as significant scheduling problems that occur in the real world. It again includes supplementary material in the form of slide-shows from industry and movies that show implementations of scheduling systems. The main structure of the book as per previous edition consists of three parts. The first part focuses on deterministic scheduling and the related combinatorial problems. The second part covers probabilistic scheduling models; in this part it is assumed that processing times and other problem data are random and not known in advance. The third part deals with scheduling in practice; it covers heuristics that are popular with practitioners and discusses system design and implementation issues. All three parts of this new edition have been revamped and streamlined. The references have been made completely up-to-date. Theoreticians and practitioners alike will find this book of interest. Graduate students in operations management, operations research, industrial engineering, and computer science will find the book an accessible and invaluable resource. Scheduling - Theory, Algorithms, and Systems will serve as an essential reference for professionals working on scheduling problems in manufacturing, services, and other environments.

An updated edition of the text that explores the core topics in scheduling theory The second edition of Principles of Sequencing and Scheduling has been revised and updated to provide comprehensive coverage of sequencing and scheduling topics as well as emerging developments in the field. The text offers balanced coverage of deterministic models and stochastic models and includes new developments in safe scheduling and project scheduling, including coverage of project analytics. These new topics help bridge the gap between classical scheduling and actual practice. The authors—noted experts in the field—present a coherent and detailed introduction to the basic models, problems, and methods of scheduling theory. This book offers an introduction and overview of sequencing and scheduling and covers such topics as single-machine and multi-machine models, deterministic and stochastic problem formulations, optimization and heuristic solution approaches, and generic and specialized software methods. This new edition adds coverage on topics of recent interest in shop scheduling and project scheduling. This important resource: Offers comprehensive coverage of deterministic models as well as recent approaches and developments for stochastic models Emphasizes the application of generic optimization software to basic sequencing problems and the use of spreadsheet-based optimization methods Includes updated coverage on safe scheduling, lognormal modeling, and job selection Provides basic coverage of robust scheduling as contrasted with safe scheduling Adds a new chapter on project analytics, which supports the PERT21 framework for project scheduling in a stochastic environment. Extends the coverage of PERT 21 to include hierarchical scheduling Provides end-of-chapter references and access to advanced Research Notes, to aid readers in the further exploration of advanced topics Written for upper-undergraduate and graduate level courses covering such topics as scheduling theory and applications, project scheduling, and operations scheduling, the second edition of Principles of Sequencing and Scheduling is a resource that covers scheduling techniques and contains the most current research and emerging topics.

This new edition of the well established text Scheduling - Theory, Algorithms, and Systems provides an up-to-date coverage of important theoretical models in the scheduling literature as well as significant scheduling problems that occur in the real world. It again includes supplementary material in the form of slide-shows from industry and movies that show implementations of scheduling systems. The main structure of the book as per previous edition consists of three parts. The first part focuses on deterministic scheduling and the related combinatorial problems. The second part covers probabilistic scheduling models; in this part it is assumed that processing times and other problem data are random and not known in advance. The third part deals with scheduling in practice; it covers heuristics that are popular with practitioners and discusses system design and implementation issues. All three parts of this new edition have been revamped and streamlined. The references have been made completely up-to-date. Theoreticians and practitioners alike will find this book of interest. Graduate students in operations management, operations research, industrial engineering, and computer science will find the book an accessible and invaluable resource. Scheduling - Theory, Algorithms, and Systems will serve as an essential reference for professionals working on scheduling problems in manufacturing, services, and other environments. Reviews of third edition: This well-established text covers both the theory and practice of scheduling. The book begins with motivating examples and the penultimate chapter discusses some commercial scheduling systems and examples of their implementations." (Mathematical Reviews, 2009)

This book will serve as a guide in understanding workflow scheduling techniques on computing systems such as Cluster, Supercomputers, Grid computing, Cloud computing, Edge computing, Fog computing, and the practical realization of such methods. It offers a whole new perspective and holistic approach in understanding computing systems’ workflow scheduling. Expressing and exposing approaches for various process-centric cloud-based applications give a full coverage of most systems’ energy consumption, reliability, resource utilization, cost, and application stochastic computation. By combining theory with application and connecting mathematical concepts and models with their resource management targets, this book will be equally accessible to readers with both Computer Science and Engineering backgrounds. It will be of great interest to students and professionals alike in the field of computing system design, management, and application. This book will also be beneficial to the general audience and technology enthusiasts who want to expand their knowledge on computer structure.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms, WAOA 2011, held in Saarbrücken, Germany, in September 2011. The 21 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 48 submissions. The volume also contains an extended abstract of the invited talk of Prof. Klaus Jansen. The Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms for online and computationally hard problems. Both kinds of problems have a large number of applications in a wide variety of fields. Topics of interest for WAOA 2011 were: algorithmic game theory, approximation classes, coloring and partitioning, competitive analysis, computational finance, cuts and connectivity, geometric problems, inapproximability results, mechanism design, network design, packing and covering, paradigms for design and analysis of approximation and online algorithms, parameterized complexity, randomization techniques and scheduling problems.

Using simplified notation and revealing unifying concepts, this book covers flow shop systems including two-machine, flexible and stochastic, and examines the reentrant flow shop, in which a job may be reprocessed at the same station or sequence of stations.