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arXiv · 2508.13703

Minimizing the Weighted Number of Tardy Jobs: Data-Driven Heuristic for Single-Machine Scheduling

Abstract

Existing research on single-machine scheduling is largely focused on exact algorithms, which perform well on typical instances but can significantly deteriorate on certain regions of the problem space. In contrast, data-driven approaches provide strong and scalable performance when tailored to the structure of specific datasets. Leveraging this idea, we focus on a single-machine scheduling problem where each job is defined by its weight, duration, due date, and deadline, aiming to minimize the total weight of tardy jobs. We introduce a novel data-driven scheduling heuristic that combines machine learning with problem-specific characteristics, ensuring feasible solutions, which is a common challenge for ML-based algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art in terms of optimality gap, number of optimal solutions, and adaptability across varied data scenarios, highlighting its flexibility for practical applications. In addition, we conduct a systematic exploration of ML models, addressing a common gap in similar studies by offering a detailed model selection process and providing insights into why the chosen model is the best fit.

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Nikolai Antonov, Prěmysl Šůcha, Mikoláš Janota, Jan Hůla. 2025-10-07. Minimizing the Weighted Number of Tardy Jobs: Data-Driven Heuristic for Single-Machine Scheduling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2025.107281

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