A heuristic method to schedule training programs for Small and Medium Enterprises

During the life period of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in incubators they need some training programs to acquire the required knowledge in order to survive and succeed in the business environment. This paper presents a heuristic method based on an optimization model to schedule these programs at the most suitable times. Based on the proposed heuristic, each training program is implemented in a suitable time by considering the SMEs’ requirements and some other logical constraints. The proposed heuristic is described in detail, and its implementation is demonstrated via a real-life numerical example. The numerical results of the heuristic are compared with other methods.

► Formulation of a real course scheduling problem which is frequently implemented in incubators. ► Development of a greedy heuristic algorithm to solve the formulated NP-Complete problem. ► The proof of NP-Completeness of the defined problem. ► Demonstration of an equivalent job scheduling problem in manufacturing systems as another application of the defined problem. ► Demonstration of the efficiency of the proposed algorithm by comparing the results with other methods.