Dynamic job assignment heuristics for multi-server bath operations – a cost based approach

In many industries production facilities are used which process products in a batch-wise manner. Guided by research in the aircraft industry, where the process of hardening synthetic aircraft parts was studied, we propose a new control strategy for these types of systems. Given the availability of information on a few near future arrivals the strategy decides on when to schedule a job in order to minimize logistical costs. The fact that different cost structures can be incorporated, makes it a valuable tool for use in practical situations in business. The potential of the new strategy is demonstrated by an extensive series of simulation experiments, in which its response for various system configurations was tested in comparison with existing heuristics.