Job Shop Scheduling Optimization

Job shop scheduling is one of the most practically relevant combinatorial optimization problems in manufacturing. The goal is to sequence a set of jobs across multiple machines, where each job has its own unique routing through the shop floor.

This project develops constraint programming (CP) models for realistic job shop variants, including:

• Sequence-dependent setup times — cleaning, retooling, or calibration times between operations that depend on what was produced before.
• Resource-constrained scheduling — machines, tools, operators, and fixtures that must be available simultaneously for an operation to start.
• Multi-objective optimization — trades between makespan, tardiness, and machine utilization.

The models are implemented using modern CP solvers (OR-Tools, Chuffed) and evaluated against standard benchmarks as well as synthetic instances designed to reflect real production environments.

The goal is to produce schedules that are not only feasible but operationally practical — respecting shift patterns, maintenance windows, and material availability.