Sequencing with earliness and tardiness penalties: A review

The authors consider the problem of scheduling n jobs to minimize the total earliness and tardiness penalty. They review the literature on this topic, providing a framework to show how results have been generalized starting with a basic model that contains symmetric penalties, one machine and a common due date. To this base the authors add such features as parallel machines, complex penalty functions and distinct due dates. They also consolidate many of the existing results by proving general forms of two key properties of earliness/tardiness models.