This paper addresses the application of AI techniques in a practical OR problem , i.e. scheduling. Scheduling is a scientific domain concerning the allocation of tasks to a limited set of resources over time. The goal of scheduling is to maximize (or minimize) different optimization criteria such as the makespan (i.e. the completion time of the last operation in the schedule), the occupation ra...

The max / / C idle no F − problem is solved by a branch and bound algorithm, or a mixed integer programming solver. This problem is known to be NP-hard. The noidle flow-shop configuration, where machines work continuously without idle intervals is an interesting manufacturing environment in many industries. The idle characteristic is a very strong constraint and it affects seriously the value o...

The use of random test problems to evaluate algorithm performance raises an important, and generally unanswered, question: Are the results generalizable to more realistic problems? Researchers generally assume that algorithms with superior performance on diÆcult, random test problems will also perform well on more realistic, structured problems. Our research explores this assumption for the per...