Scheduling optimization of a real flexible job shop including side constraints regarding maintenance, fixtures, and night shifts

We present a generic iterative scheduling procedure for the scheduling of a real flexible job shop, the so-called multitask cell at GKN Aerospace Engine Systems in Sweden. A time-indexed formulation of the problem is presented including side constraints regarding preventive maintenance, fixture availability, and unmanned night shifts. This paper continues the work in Thörnblad et al. [35], with an improvement of the iterative solution procedure and the inclusion of constraints regarding night shifts during which only unmanned processing is allowed. The resulting schedules are compared with schedules constructed using two priority dispatching rules. Computational results show that the gain of including the night shifts constraints is significant and that the methodology developed is able to produce near-optimal schedules for industrial data instances for the coming shift within an acceptable practical time frame.