A MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF A MULTI-CRITERIA PARALLEL MACHINE SCHEDULING PROBLEM: A GENETIC ALGORITHM

This paper presents a new mathematical model for a multi-criteria parallel machine scheduling problem minimizing the total earliness and tardiness penalties as well as machine costs. Machines are defined as unrelated parallel machines, so they have different speeds. To solve such a NP-hard problem, a meta-heuristic method based on genetic algorithms is proposed and developed. New operators are defined and applied in order to improve the quality of solutions. A number of test problems are carried out and the associated computational results are represented. The results show that the proposed algorithm is effective.