Lot streaming in open shop

The problem of processing of job lot of n identical items in a general shop where each item in the lot requires processing in m distinct processors, in any order, is considered. The m processors are not necessarily available at the same time to process the job lot. The objective is to minimize the total cost comprising processor costs and penalty cost for due date violation in completing the processing of the job lot. An optimizing and a heuristic algorithm have been developed.