A note on due-date assignment and single machine scheduling with a learning/aging effect

This paper considers the learning/aging effect in an n job single machine scheduling problem with common due date. The objective is to determine the optimal common due date and the optimal sequence of jobs that minimizes a cost function in the presence of learning/aging effect. The cost function depends on the individual job earliness and tardiness values; i.e., ∑j=1n{E[j]+T[j]}. This is a well-known problem when the learning/aging effect is not considered and it is shown in earlier studies that there are more than one optimal sequence and optimal common due dates. It is shown in earlier studies that there are 2r-1 optimal sequences to this problem if n is odd, and 2r optimal sequences if n is even. The value of r is (n+1)/2 if n is odd, and the value of r is n/2 if n is even. In this paper, we derive two bounds Bα and Bα* for the learning index α. We show that when Bα<α<0, then the optimal sequence is unique and provide an O(nlogn) algorithm to obtain this unique optimal sequence and the optimal common due date. We also show that when αAα*, the optimal sequence is obtained by arranging the jobs in LPT order. We also present a numerical example for ease of understanding.