Abstract
Scheduling problems occurring in parallel machines manufacturing environments are quite usual and many different methods have been applied for solving it. These methods vary from the application of more or less simple heuristics and rules up to more complex methods, including distinct kind of metaheuristics. In this paper we discuss a fuzzy optimization method using simulated annealing (Fuzzy-SA) for solving an unrelated parallel machines manufacturing scheduling problem. To demonstrate the potential of our method we use an illustrative example of a parallel machines scheduling (PMS) problem and then we analyse it and perform statistical tests with 20 instances.

Abstract
Extended Manufacturing Environments (EMEs) are nowadays growing due to the increase on Distributed and Virtual Enterprises, which led to an emergent need to apply scheduling approaches accordingly. This can be achieved in several different ways, namely by putting forward new approaches or by trying to adapt existing ones. In this paper the adaptation of some existing scheduling methods is proposed for solving a two stage manufacturing scheduling problem, and an illustrative example is presented. Several approaches were analyses, namely through the use of the ANOV A and the Post Hoc Scheffe's test, that demonstrated the superior performance of one of the proposed methods.

Abstract
Current Manufacturing Systems challenges due to international economic crisis, market globalization and e-business trends, incites the development of intelligent systems to support decision making, which allows managers to concentrate on high-level tasks management while improving decision response and effectiveness towards manufacturing agility. This paper presents a novel negotiation mechanism for dynamic scheduling based on social and collective intelligence. Under the proposed negotiation mechanism, agents must interact and collaborate in order to improve the global schedule. Swarm Intelligence (SI) is considered a general aggregation term for several computational techniques, which use ideas and inspiration from the social behaviors of insects and other biological systems. This work is primarily concerned with negotiation, where multiple self-interested agents can reach agreement over the exchange of operations on competitive resources. Experimental analysis was performed in order to validate the influence of negotiation mechanism in the system performance and the SI technique. Empirical results and statistical evidence illustrate that the negotiation mechanism influence significantly the overall system performance and the effectiveness of Artificial Bee Colony for makespan minimization and on the machine occupation maximization.

Abstract
Scheduling continues to play an important role in manufacturing systems. It enables the production of suitable scheduling plans, considering shared resources between several different products, through several manufacturing environments including networked ones. High levels of uncertainty characterize networked manufacturing environments. Processes have specific and complex requirements and management requisites, along with diversified objectives, which are dynamic and often conflicting. Dynamic adaptation and a real-time response for manufacturing scheduling is still possible and is critical in this new manufacturing environments, which have a flexible nature, where disturbances on working conditions occur on a continuous and even unexpected basis. Therefore, scheduling systems should have the ability of automatically and intelligently maintain a real-time adaptation and optimization of orders production, to effectively and efficiently adapt these manufacturing environments to the inherent dynamic of markets. In this paper a collaborative framework for supporting dynamic scheduling in networked manufacturing environments is proposed, based on a hyper-organization model and on hyper-heuristics, in order to obtain feasible and robust scheduling plans. Copyright © 2014, IGI Global.

Abstract
In the current marketplace, enterprises face enormous competitive pressures. Global competition for customers that demand customized products with shorter due dates and the advancement in information technologies, marked the introduction of the Extended Enterprise. In these EMEs (Extended Manufacturing Environments), lean, virtual, networked and distributed enterprises, form MO (Meta-Organizations), which collaborate to respond to the dynamic marketplace. MO members share resources, customers and information. In this paper we present a hybrid framework based on a DKBS (Distributed Knowledge Base System), which includes information about scheduling methods for collaborative enterprises sharing their problems. A core component of this system includes an inference engine as well as two indexes, to help in the classification of the usefulness of the information about the problems and solving methods. A more structured approach for expanding the MO concept is presented, with the HO (Hyper-Organization). The manner in which MO-DSS can communicate, cooperate and share information, in the context of the HO is also detailed. © 2014 IEEE.

Abstract
Scheduling problems in parallel machines have been deeply studied and many are too complex to be solved by exact methods. The unrelated parallel machines makespan minimization problem (Rm||Cmax) is known to be NP-hard and is usually solved using heuristics. Considering heuristics used in these problems, it is possible to identify two different approaches, those that use the execution time to allocate tasks and those that use the completion time. This paper proposes a new heuristic, OMCT (Ordered Minimum Completion Time), based on the performance limitation of the MCT (Minimum Completion Time). The computational study results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic. © 2014 AISTI.