The Single Machine Total Weighted Tardiness Problem - Is it (for Metaheuristics) a Solved Problem ?

The single machine total weighted tardiness problem (SMTWTP) is a well-known planning problem from operations research, engineering and computer science. It is characterized by the assignment of starting times for a given set of jobs on a single processor, minimizing the (weighted) tardy completion of the jobs with respect to given due dates. In this sense, the tardiness is given an economical interpretation, referring to the consideration of costs which consequently have to be avoided as much as possible. Although most practical problems involve multiple resources (e. g. machines), many problems can be decomposed into a subsequently solved series of single-machine problems, as for example done in the famous shifting bottleneck heuristic [2]. The effective solution of each single-machine subproblem is therefore a relevant aspect for solving more complex models.