A memetic algorithm for parallel batch machine scheduling with incompatible job families and dynamic job arrivals

The identical parallel batch machine scheduling problem is addressed in this paper. Incompatible job families and dynamic job arrivals are considered, and the objective is to minimize total weighted tardiness. A memetic algorithm is proposed to assign the batches to machines and to determine their processing sequences. The proposed approach is shown to outperform an existing approach in terms of solution quality and computational efficiency through comprehensive experiments.