A practical heuristic for the group technology economic lot scheduling problem

In some flexible manufacturing systems, group technology principles divide parts naturally into groups so that substantial set-ups occur only when switching production between groups. The authors discuss the scheduling of one such real-life manufacturing process. They develop a practical heuristic for the economic lot scheduling problem in this group technology environment. The heuristic is relatively simple, yet performs well. An example is solved in detail. A computational study verifies the heuristic’s capabilities and suggests extensions for improvement.