Robust single machine scheduling problem with uncertain job due dates for industrial mass production

The single machine scheduling problem which involves uncertain job due dates is one of the most important issues in the real make-to-order environment. To deal with the uncertainty, this paper establishes a robust optimization model by minimizing the maximum tardiness in the worst case scenario over all jobs. Unlike the traditional stochastic programming model which requires exact distributions, our model only needs the information of due date intervals. The worst case scenario for a given sequence that belongs to a set containing only n scenarios is proved, where n is the number of jobs. Then, the model is simplified and reformulated as an equivalent mixed 0–1 integer linear programming (MILP) problem. To solve the MILP problems efficiently, a heuristic approach is proposed based on a robust dominance rule. The experimental results show that the proposed method has the advantages of robustness and high calculating efficiency, and it is feasible for large-scale problems.