Split Scheduling with Uniform Setup Times
Abstract
We study a scheduling problem in which jobs may be split into parts, where the parts of a split job may be processed simultaneously on more than one machine. Each part of a job requires a setup time, however, on the machine where the job part is processed. During setup a machine cannot process or set up any other job. We concentrate on the basic case in which setup times are job-, machine-, and sequence-independent. Problems of this kind were encountered when modelling practical problems in planning disaster relief operations. Our main algorithmic result is a polynomial-time algorithm for minimising total completion time on two parallel identical machines. We argue why the same problem with three machines is not an easy extension of the two-machine case, leaving the complexity of this case as a tantalising open problem. We give a constant-factor approximation algorithm for the general case with any number of machines and a polynomial-time approximation scheme for a fixed number of machines. For the version with objective minimising weighted total completion time we prove NP-hardness. Finally, we conclude with an overview of the state of the art for other split scheduling problems with job-, machine-, and sequence-independent setup times.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1212.1754,
title = {Split Scheduling with Uniform Setup Times},
author = {Frans Schalekamp and Rene Sitters and Suzanne van der Ster and Leen Stougie and Victor Verdugo and Anke van Zuylen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.1754},
year = {2012}
}