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arXiv · 2609.18046

Serial-batch scheduling to minimise the total weighted late work

Yao-Wen Sang·Naiming Xie·Jian Chen·Malgorzata Sterna·Jacek Blazewicz
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Abstract

We study the problem of scheduling jobs on a serial-batch machine with the aim of minimising the total weighted late work. In a serial-batch setting, jobs within a batch are processed sequentially, and none are removed from the machine until the last job in the batch completes its processing. The processing time of a batch is the sum of the processing times of the jobs within it, and the completion time for each job in the batch is equal to the makespan of the jobs in the batch. When a new batch begins, a constant setup time is required for the machine. We show that minimising the total weighted late work in this environment is $NP$-hard even if all jobs have a common due date and unit weight. For the general problem, we present a pseudo-polynomial time dynamic programming algorithm. Additionally, we explore two special cases, i.e., one with a common due date and another with an agreeable condition among due dates, processing times and weights. For both special cases, we develop specialised pseudo-polynomial time dynamic programming algorithms. The proposed approaches are equipped with specialised acceleration techniques to enhance their computational performance. The extended experiments demonstrate that the dynamic programming algorithms outperform Gurobi in time efficiency.

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Yao-Wen Sang, Naiming Xie, Jian Chen, Malgorzata Sterna, Jacek Blazewicz. 2026-09-16. Serial-batch scheduling to minimise the total weighted late work. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18046

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