Abstract
In this paper, a method within the framework of propagation of interval constraints and based on the branch- and-bound optimization scheme for solving the job-shop scheduling problem will be presented. The goal is to provide a constraint program which is clean, flexible and robust. The design of the constraint program is based on an idea of sorting the release and due dates of tasks, which is a successful application of a previous but not yet published work on a distinct integers constraint. Based on the sorting constraint, by assembling redundant constraints and applying an efficient search strategy, the current program for the job-shop problem can solve the ten 10 × 10 instances in the paper of Applegate and Cook (1991) in satisfactory computational time. Moreover, good results have been achieved on some harder instances.
This work has been supported by the Esprit Project Acclaim nℴ 7195
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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Zhou, J. (1996). A constraint program for solving the job-shop problem. In: Freuder, E.C. (eds) Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming — CP96. CP 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1118. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61551-2_97
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61551-2_97
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