Application Construction Heuristic Algorithm for Unrelated Parallel Machines Scheduling with Sequence-and-Machine Dependent Setup Times and Machine Eligibility Restrictions: A Case Study

The textile industry faces increasing demands for quality, faster delivery, and production flexibility. This study proposes a construction heuristic algorithm to optimize the production scheduling of an unrelated parallel machine environment in a knit fabric manufacturing company. The objective is to minimize total tardiness, considering sequence and machine dependent setup times, and machine eligibility. The analysis compares the current problem with the performance of construction heuristics based on dispatching rules including FCFS, SPT, LPT, and EDD rules in Python. The results show that the EDD rule outperforms the others, with only 2 jobs finishing late and total tardiness decreasing from 185.2 to 34.3 hours. The findings of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic approach and its potential for actual application in the textile industry.