Co-evolutionary Genetic Algorithms for Reactive Scheduling

Abstract

Previous researches provided a reactive scheduling method using a genetic algorithm to improve disturbed production schedules, due to unexpected disruptions, such as delays of manufacturing operations. This paper deals with an extension of the reactive scheduling method to modify not only the loading sequences but also machining sequences of jobs by using a co-evolutionary genetic algorithm. Two different kinds of individuals for the loading sequences and the machining sequences are generated and improved in co-evolutionary processes. A prototype of new reactive scheduling system was developed, and the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified through computational experiments.

Keywords

• reactive scheduling
• genetic algorithm
• co-evolution
• process planning and scheduling