A Statistical Comparison of Metaheuristics for Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling Problems with Setup Times

Manufacturing scheduling aims to optimize one or more performance measures by allocating a set of resources jobs tasks over given period time. It is an area that considers very important decision-making process for manufacturing and production systems. In this paper, the unrelated parallel machine problem with machine-dependent job-sequence-dependent setup times addressed. This involves on machines in order minimize makespan. The genetic algorithm used solve small large instances when processing are balanced (Balanced problems), dominant (Dominant P S problems). For instances, most values achieved optimal makespan value, and, compared metaheuristic ant colony optimization (ACOII) referred literature, it was found there were no significant differences between two methods. However, terms obtained methods, revealing overall better Dominant problems.