Exact algorithms for a scheduling problem with unrelated parallel machines and sequence and machine-dependent setup times

A scheduling problem with unrelated parallel machines, sequence and machine-dependent setup times, due dates and weighted jobs is considered in this work. A branch-and-bound algorithm (B&B) is developed and a solution provided by the metaheuristic GRASP is used as an upper bound. We also propose a set of instances for this type of problem. The results are compared to the solutions provided by two mixed integer programming models (MIP) with the solver CPLEX 9.0. We carry out computational experiments and the algorithm performs extremely well on instances with up to 30 jobs. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.