Applications of resource assignment and scheduling with Petri Nets and heuristic search

Applications of resource assignment and scheduling with Petri Nets and heuristic search

0.00 Avg rating0 Votes
Article ID: iaor20108886
Volume: 181
Issue: 1
Start Page Number: 795
End Page Number: 812
Publication Date: Dec 2010
Journal: Annals of Operations Research
Authors: ,
Keywords: petri nets
Abstract:

This paper introduces a new Petri Net based approach for resource allocation and scheduling. The goals are (i) minimize the number of required resources given a set of jobs, (ii) find both an assignment for all jobs in the span of a predefined shift and (iii) the sequence in which such jobs are executed. The studied problem was inspired from a complex real life manufacturing shop as described in this document. The modeling of the processes and jobs is carried out with Petri Nets due to their capability of representing dynamic, concurrent discrete-event dynamic systems. The resource assignment starts with an initial feasible solution (initial number of resources) and then follows with a re-optimization process aimed to further reduce the resource requirements. The algorithm is based on a modified Heuristic Search method previously presented. The algorithm was tested first on a number of instances from the literature and then on the aforementioned system (a car seat cover manufacturer). The proposed approach shows not only good results in terms of performance but also shows the potential of Petri Nets for modeling and optimizing real-life systems. An implementation phase at the first stages of the process is underway at the time of writing.

Reviews

Required fields are marked *. Your email address will not be published.