Application of Tabu Search for Job Shop Scheduling Based on Manufacturing Order Swapping

Abstract

Due to the characteristics of small-volume-large-variety production in the aircraft industry, determining how to intelligently take men, machines, materials, methods, and environments into account is critical for production, posing the challenge of scheduling the job shop. The existing scheduling system is slow to adapt when the requirements change and, most importantly, slow to consider the current situation of the production line. In this study, we apply the Tabu search algorithm to resolve the scheduling problem. This method swaps manufacturing orders with the consideration of the due date, working hours, and current delays via the finite capacity assumption. Meanwhile, we set up extreme bounds using the infinite capacity assumption for comparison. The case study is conducted in a work center that uses pliers to trim parts for use in the aircraft industry. The results show the closeness to the extreme bounds and indicate this method’s practical feasibility for industrial applications.

Keywords

• job shop scheduling
• Tabu search
• manufacturing orders
• extreme bounds
• aircraft industry