Transfer batch scheduling for a two-stage flowshop with identical parallel machines at each stage

This paper considers the transfer batch scheduling problem for a two-stage flowshop with identical parallel machines at each stage. Two cases of separable and inseparable setup times and processing times are examined. A scheduling rule similar to Johnson's rule is suggested to minimize makespan. The scheduling method developed in this paper subsumes many existing methods for two-stage flowshop makespan minimization. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the scheduling method.