A simulation-based production scheduling method for minimizing the due-date-deviation

A simulation-based scheduling method for minimizing the due-date-deviation is proposed on the basis of the combination of the BFHS (backward/forward hybrid simulation) method and the parameter-spaced-search-improvement method. A new schedule generation method named the BFHS/type-D is first developed, in which the information generated during the backward simulation is utilized to control operation-onset timings and job priorities in the forward simulation. Then, after investigation of the backward-simulation characteristics, two parameters are proposed to manipulate the simulation process systematically in relation to due-date-deviation. Furthermore, the best schedule with respect to due-date-deviation is searched for on the space spanned by the two parameters. Finally, the effectivenesss and efficiency of the proposed method are demonstrated, not only on a simple job-shop model, but also on a practical large-scale system.