A local search algorithm: minimizing makespan of deteriorating jobs with relaxed agreeable weights

In this paper, we consider the problem of minimizing makespan of n deteriorating jobs on a single machine. Rates of deterioration are job-dependent and constant with respect to the starting times. Jobs begin to deteriorate after a common critical date ‘d.’ The concept of relaxed agreeable weights is introduced. It is shown that the problem is NP-hard. The condition of relaxed agreeable weights and the structure of the problem are used to show that our local search algorithm, to obtain a locally optimal solution, will require polynomial effort in the number of jobs.