Maximizing throughput in some simple time-constrained scheduling situations

This contribution focuses on some interesting phenomena occurring in scheduling capacity constrained resources in time-constrained situations. The scheduling situations considered form part of a simulation game developed to assist in teaching the scheduling philosophy of Optimized Production Technology (OPT) to production managers. It is shown that under certain conditions on set-up and processing times, advanced examples may be constructed combining three of the four complicating conditions mentioned in the OPT-literature. In addition, some interesting properties of process batches yielding a maximum throughput in such cases is considered.