Approximation algorithms for scheduling single batch machine with incompatible deteriorating jobs

Abstract

Motivated by the soaking process under separate heating mode in iron and steel enterprises, we study the parallel batch machine scheduling problem with incompatible deteriorating jobs. The objective is to minimize makespan. A soaking furnace can be seen as a parallel batch processing machine. In order to avoid the thermal stress caused by excessive temperature difference, initial temperature is needed for the ingot before processing. With the increasing of waiting time, the ingot temperature decreases and the soaking time increases. This property is called deterioration. Setup time is needed between incompatible jobs. We show that if jobs have the same sizes, an optimal solution can be found within O(n log n) time. If jobs have identical processing times, the problem is proved to be NP-hard in the strong sense. We propose an approximate algorithm whose absolute and asymptotic worst-case ratios are less than 2 and 11/9, respectively. When the jobs have arbitrary sizes and arbitrary processing times, the model is also NP-hard in the strong sense. An approximate algorithm with an absolute and asymptotic worst-case ratio less than 2 is proposed. The time complexity is O(n log n).