Network modeling and evolutionary optimization for scheduling in manufacturing

Scheduling is one of the most important fields in Advanced Planning and Scheduling or a manufacturing optimization. In this paper, we propose a network modeling technique to formulate the complex scheduling problems in manufacturing, and focus on how to model the scheduling problems to mathematical formulation. We propose a multi-section evolutionary algorithm for the scheduling models formulated by network modeling. Through a combination of the network modeling and this multi-section evolutionary algorithm, we can implement the auto-scheduling in the manufacturing system. The effectiveness and efficiency of proposed approach are investigated with various scales of scheduling problems by comparing with recent related researches. Lastly, we introduced service-oriented evolutionary computation architecture software. It help improved the evolutionary computation's availability in the variable practical scheduling in manufacturing.