• Title/Summary/Keyword: NP-hard Problems

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Inverse Bin-packing Number Problems: NP-Hardness and Approximation Algorithms

  • Chung, Yerim
    • Management Science and Financial Engineering
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.19-22
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    • 2012
  • In the bin-packing problem, we deal with how to pack the items by using a minimum number of bins. In the inverse bin-packing number problem, IBPN for short, we are given a list of items and a fixed number of bins. The objective is to perturb at the minimum cost the item-size vector so that all items can be packed into the prescribed number of bins. We show that IBPN is NP-hard and provide an approximation algorithm. We also consider a variant of IBPN where the prescribed solution value should be returned by a pre-selected specific approximation algorithm.

Development of a Heuristic Algorithm Based on Simulated Annealing for Time-Resource Tradeoffs in Project Scheduling Problems (시간-자원 트레이드오프 프로젝트 스케줄링 문제 해결을 위한 시뮬레이티드 어닐링 기반 휴리스틱 알고리즘 개발)

  • Kim, Geon-A;Seo, Yoon-Ho
    • The Journal of Information Systems
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    • v.28 no.4
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    • pp.175-197
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    • 2019
  • Purpose This study develops a heuristic algorithm to solve the time-resource tradeoffs in project scheduling problems with a real basis. Design/methodology/approach Resource constrained project scheduling problem with time-resource tradeoff is well-known as one of the NP-hard problems. Previous researchers have proposed heuristic that minimize Makespan of project scheduling by deriving optimal combinations from finite combinations of time and resource. We studied to solve project scheduling problems by deriving optimal values from infinite combinations. Findings We developed heuristic algorithm named Push Algorithm that derives optimal combinations from infinite combinations of time and resources. Developed heuristic algorithm based on simulated annealing shows better improved results than genetic algorithm and further research suggestion was discussed as a project scheduling problem with multiple resources of real numbers.

Differential Evolution Algorithm for Job Shop Scheduling Problem

  • Wisittipanich, Warisa;Kachitvichyanukul, Voratas
    • Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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    • v.10 no.3
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    • pp.203-208
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    • 2011
  • Job shop scheduling is well-known as one of the hardest combinatorial optimization problems and has been demonstrated to be NP-hard problem. In the past decades, several researchers have devoted their effort to develop evolutionary algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for job shop scheduling problem. Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm is a more recent evolutionary algorithm which has been widely applied and shown its strength in many application areas. However, the applications of DE on scheduling problems are still limited. This paper proposes a one-stage differential evolution algorithm (1ST-DE) for job shop scheduling problem. The proposed algorithm employs random key representation and permutation of m-job repetition to generate active schedules. The performance of proposed method is evaluated on a set of benchmark problems and compared with results from an existing PSO algorithm. The numerical results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm is able to provide good solutions especially for the large size problems with relatively fast computing time.

Customer Order Scheduling Problems on Parallel Machines with Job Capacity Restriction

  • Yang, Jaehwan
    • Management Science and Financial Engineering
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.47-68
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    • 2003
  • We consider the customer order scheduling problem with job capacity restriction where the number of jobs in the shop at the same time is fixed. In the customer order scheduling problem, each job is part of some batch (customer order) and the composition of the jobs (product) in the batch is pre-specified. The objective function is associated with the completion time of the batches instead of the completion time of the jobs. We first summarize the known results for the general customer order scheduling problems. Then, we establish some new properties for the problems with job capacity restriction. For the case of unit processing time with the objective of minimizing makespan, we develop a polynomial-time optimal procedure for the two machine case. For the same problem with a variation of no batch alternation, we also develop a polynomial-time optimal procedure. Then, we show that the problems with the objectives of minimizing makespan and minimizing average batch completion time become NP-hard when there exist arbitrary number of machines. Finally, We propose optimal solution procedures for some special cases.

A Robust Design of Simulated Annealing Approach : Mixed-Model Sequencing Problem (시뮬레이티드 어닐링 알고리듬의 강건설계 : 혼합모델 투입순서 결정문제에 대한 적용)

  • Kim, Ho-Gyun;Paik, Chun-Hyun;Cho, Hyung-Soo
    • IE interfaces
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.189-198
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    • 2002
  • Simulated Annealing(SA) approach has been successfully applied to the combinatorial optimization problems with NP-hard complexity. To apply an SA algorithm to specific problems, generic parameters as well as problem-specific parameters must be determined. To overcome the embedded nature of SA, long computational time, some studies suggested the parameter design methods of determining SA related parameters. In this study, we propose a new parameter design approach based on robust design method. To show the effectiveness of the proposed method, the extensive computation experiments are conducted on the mixed-model sequencing problems.

A New Tree Representation for Evolutionary Algorithms (진화 알고리듬을 위한 새로운 트리 표현 방법)

  • Soak, Sang-Moon;Ahn, Byung-Ha
    • Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.10-19
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    • 2005
  • The minimum spanning tree (MST) problem is one of the traditional optimization problems. Unlike the MST, the degree constrained minimum spanning tree (DCMST) of a graph cannot, in general, be found using a polynomial time algorithm. So, finding the DCMST of a graph is a well-known NP-hard problem of importance in communications network design, road network design and other network-related problems. So, it seems to be natural to use evolutionary algorithms for solving DCMST. Especially, when applying an evolutionary algorithm to spanning tree problems, a representation and search operators should be considered simultaneously. This paper introduces a new tree representation scheme and a genetic operator for solving combinatorial tree problem using evolutionary algorithms. We performed empirical comparisons with other tree representations on several test instances and could confirm that the proposed method is superior to other tree representations. Even it is superior to edge set representation which is known as the best algorithm.

A New Ship Scheduling Set Packing Model Considering Limited Risk

  • Kim, Si-Hwa;Hwang, Hee-Su
    • Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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    • v.30 no.7
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    • pp.561-566
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    • 2006
  • In this paper, we propose a new ship scheduling set packing model considering limited risk or variance. The set packing model is used in many applications, such as vehicle routing, crew scheduling, ship scheduling, cutting stock and so on. As long as the ship scheduling is concerned, there exits many unknown external factors such as machine breakdown, climate change and transportation cost fluctuation. However, existing ship scheduling models have not considered those factors apparently. We use a quadratic set packing model to limit the variance of expected cost of ship scheduling problems under stochastic spot rates. Set problems are NP-complete, and additional quadratic constraint makes the problems much harder. We implement Kelley's cutting plane method to replace the hard quadratic constraint by many linear constrains and use branch-and-bound algorithm to get the optimal integral solution. Some meaningful computational results and comments are provided.

Design of Distributed Computer Systems Using Tabu Search Method (Tabu 탐색 기법을 이용한 분산 컴퓨팅 시스템 설계)

  • Hong, Jin-Won;Kim, Jae-Yearn
    • Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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    • v.18 no.36
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    • pp.143-152
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    • 1995
  • This paper determines the allocation of computers and data files to minimize the sum of processing and communication costs which occur in processing jobs at each node. The problem of optimally configuring a distributed computer system belongs to the class of NP-Complete problems and the object function of this paper is nonlinear function and is hard to solve. This paper seeks the solution of distributed processing system by Tabu Search. Firstly, it presents the method of generating the starting solution proper to the distributed processing system. Secondly, it develops the method of searching neighborhood solutions. Finally, it determines the Tabu restriction appropriate to the distributed processing system. According to the experimental results, this algorithm solves a sized problems in reasonable time and is effective in the convergence of the solution. The algorithm developed in this paper is also applicable to the general allocation problems of the distributed processing system.

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Constraint Programming Approach for a Course Timetabling Problem

  • Kim, Chun-Sik;Hwang, Junha
    • Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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    • v.22 no.9
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    • pp.9-16
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    • 2017
  • The course timetabling problem is a problem assigning a set of subjects to the given classrooms and different timeslots, while satisfying various hard constraints and soft constraints. This problem is defined as a constraint satisfaction optimization problem and is known as an NP-complete problem. Various methods has been proposed such as integer programming, constraint programming and local search methods to solve a variety of course timetabling problems. In this paper, we propose an iterative improvement search method to solve the problem based on constraint programming. First, an initial solution satisfying all the hard constraints is obtained by constraint programming, and then the solution is repeatedly improved using constraint programming again by adding new constraints to improve the quality of the soft constraints. Through experimental results, we confirmed that the proposed method can find far better solutions in a shorter time than the manual method.

A Study on Korean Railroad Crew Rostering Problem (철도 승무원 교번표의 운행 사업 배치 문제에 관한 연구)

  • Yang, Tae-Yong;Kim, Young-Hoon;Lee, Dong-Ho
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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    • v.9 no.2 s.33
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    • pp.206-211
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    • 2006
  • This thesis presents railroad crew restoring problem, which is to determine the railroad plan allocation. This problem is constructed that determine the sequence of duties that railroad crews have to perform. We analyze characteristic of this problem and railroad industry. It's hard to consider many constraint conditions. We propose Integer Programming model and easy methodology to be considered all given operation rules. This problem is known to be NP-hard. We develop a genetic algorithm, which is proved to be powerful in solving optimization problems. We proposed the effective mathematical model and algorithm about making crew restoring in real industry.