Tabu search algorithms for job-shop problems with a single transport robot

Abstract

We consider a generalized job-shop problem where the jobs additionally have to be transported between the machines by a single transport robot. Besides transportation times for the jobs, empty moving times for the robot are taken into account. The objective is to determine a schedule with minimal makespan. We present local search algorithms for this problem where appropriate neighborhood structures are defined using problem-specific properties. An one-stage procedure is compared with a two-stage approach and a combination of both. Computational results are presented for test data arising from job-shop benchmark instances enlarged by transportation and empty moving times. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.