Operations Research Transactions ›› 2025, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (2): 184-193.doi: 10.15960/j.cnki.issn.1007-6093.2025.02.014

• Research Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Approximation algorithms for two-agent serial batching scheduling problems

Di ZHAO1, Jin YU1, Xiwen LU1,*()   

  1. 1. School of Mathematics, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
  • Received:2022-04-14 Online:2025-06-15 Published:2025-06-12
  • Contact: Xiwen LU E-mail:xwlu@ecust.edu.cn

Abstract:

In this paper, two-agent serial batching problems are studied on a single machine. Each batch has a capacity constraint on the processing time. And there is batching cost for each batch which is a constant. The preemption of jobs is not allowed. We consider two problems: One problem is to minimize the sum of the total completion time and the batching cost of one agent under the condition that the sum of the makespan and the batching cost of the other agent does not exceed a threshold value. The other is to minimize the sum of the total completion time and the batching cost of one agent under the condition that the sum of the total completion time and the batching cost of the other agent does not exceed a threshold value. Both problems are NP-hard. A (2, 3/2)-approximation algorithm is provided for the first problem and for the second problem, we design a (2, 2)-asymptotic approximation algorithm.

Key words: agent scheduling, approximate ratio, batch, asymptotic approximation

CLC Number: