Gene expression programming based due date assignment in a simulated job shop

In this paper, a new approach for due date assignment in a multi-stage job shop is proposed and evaluated. The proposed approach is based on a genetic programming technique which is known as gene expression programming (GEP). GEP is a relatively new member of the genetic programming family. The primary objective of this research is to compare the performance of the proposed due date assignment model with several previously proposed conventional due date assignment models. For this purpose, simulation models are developed and comparisons of the due date assignment models are made mainly in terms of the mean absolute percent error (MAPE), mean percent error (MPE) and mean tardiness (MT). Some additional performance measurements are also given. Simulation experiments revealed that for many test conditions the proposed due date assignment method dominates all other compared due date assignment methods. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.