A Branch-and-bound Algorithm for Single Machine Total Tardiness Problem with Release Dates

This article presents the preliminary results on a new branch-and-bound algorithm proposed for the single machine total tardiness problem with arbitrary release dates. The algorithm relies on dominance properties from the literature as well as a new branching condition. A new lower bounding technique for the problem is also introduced. The performance of the algorithm is compared to the performance of one of the algorithms in the literature. These preliminary results show that the proposed approach is very promising as an efficient and effective exact algorithm for the problem.