A comparative study of lot streaming procedures

The authors describe computational experiments with several algorithms for solving the lot streaming problem. Each of the algorithms optimizes the makespan under some set of constraints. For example, they can constrain the solution to have no idling, consistent sublots, equal sublots or equal sublots and no idling. Such constraints increase the makespan substantially over what is optimally possible, or they may have no impact at all. The present computational results for the three-machine problem provide a quantification of these relationships.