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

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 soft...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of intelligent manufacturing 2008-02, Vol.19 (1), p.119-129
Main Authors: Greer, Kieran, Stewart, John Rea, McCollum, Barry
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Business and Management
Communication
Computer engineering
Computer science
Control
Cooling
Datasets
Intelligent agents
Machines
Manufacturing
Mechatronics
Processes
Production
Production scheduling
Protocol
Robotics
Schedules
Scheduling
Software
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:0956-5515
1572-8145
DOI:10.1007/s10845-007-0068-y