Abstract
A data mining based approach to discover previously unknown priority dispatching rules for job shop scheduling problem is presented. This approach is based on seeking the knowledge that is assumed to be embedded in the efficient solutions provided by the optimization module built using tabu search. The objective is to discover the scheduling concepts using data mining and hence to obtain a set of rules capable of approximating the efficient solutions for a job shop scheduling problem (JSSP). A data mining based scheduling framework is presented and implemented for a job shop problem with maximum lateness as the scheduling objective. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.