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Comparison of a centralised and distributed approach for a generic scheduling system

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Abstract

PEGS (Production and Environmental Generic Scheduler) is a generic production scheduler that produces good schedules over a wide range of problems. It is centralised, using search strategies with the Shifting Bottleneck algorithm. We have also developed an alternative distributed approach using software agents. In some cases this reduces run times by a factor of 10 or more. In most cases, the agent-based program also produces good solutions for published benchmark data, and the short run times make our program useful for a large range of problems. Test results show that the agents can produce schedules comparable to the best found so far for some benchmark datasets and actually better schedules than PEGS on our own random datasets. The flexibility that agents can provide for today’s dynamic scheduling is also appealing. We suggest that in this sort of generic or commercial system, the agent-based approach is a good alternative.

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Author notes

  1. Kieran Greer

    Present address: School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The QUESTOR Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland

    Kieran Greer

  2. The School of Computer Science, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland

    John Rea Stewart & Barry McCollum

  3. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland

    John Rea Stewart

Authors
  1. Kieran Greer
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  2. John Rea Stewart
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  3. Barry McCollum
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Correspondence to John Rea Stewart.

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Greer, K., Stewart, J.R. & McCollum, B. Comparison of a centralised and distributed approach for a generic scheduling system. J Intell Manuf 19, 119–129 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-007-0068-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-007-0068-y

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