Workload smoothing in a bottleneck job shop

This paper examines the planning and scheduling systems in an integrative framework for a dual resource constrained (DRC) job shop. Models a bottleneck shop environment which represents a common situation in practice. Research on workload smoothing mechanisms which integrate the planning and scheduling systems is sparse. Simulates 13 smoothing rules (utilizing aggregate workload and bottleneck information), three despatching rules and two order review/release rules. The results of this study indicate that workload smoothing by the planning system has a significant effect on the performance of the DRC job shop. Pulling work ahead in valley periods improved the tardy measures of performance, while pushing jobs back in peak periods usually deteriorated shop performance. Suggets that combining a planning system effectively with order review/release can improve mean tardiness, percentage tardy and mean flowtime measures of performance.