A faster fully polynomial approximation scheme for the single-machine total tardiness problem

Lawler [E.L. Lawler, A fully polynomial approximation scheme for the total tardiness problem, Operations Research Letters 1 (1982) 207–208] proposed a fully polynomial approximation scheme for the single-machine total tardiness problem which runs in O n 7 e time (where n is the number of jobs and e is the desired level of approximation). A faster fully polynomial approximation scheme running in Oðn log nþ n5 e Þ time is presented in this note by applying an alternative rounding scheme in conjunction with implementing Kovalyov’s [M.Y. Kovalyov, Improving the complexities of approximation algorithms for optimization problems, Operations Research Letters 17 (1995) 85–87] bound improvement procedure. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.