A heuristic for minimizing the expected makespan in two-machine flow shops with consistent coefficients of variation

A heuristic for minimizing the expected makespan in two-machine flow shops with consistent coefficients of variation

0.00 Avg rating0 Votes
Article ID: iaor2007146
Country: Netherlands
Volume: 169
Issue: 3
Start Page Number: 742
End Page Number: 750
Publication Date: Mar 2006
Journal: European Journal of Operational Research
Authors: ,
Keywords: heuristics, simulation: applications
Abstract:

The paper deals with the classical problem of minimizing the makespan in a two-machine flow shop. When the job processing times are deterministic, the optimal job sequence can be determined by applying Johnson's rule. When they are independent and exponential random variables, Talwar's rule yields a job sequence that minimizes the makespan stochastically. Assuming that the job processing times are independently and Weibull distributed random variables, we present a new job sequencing rule that includes both Johnson's and Talwar's rules as special cases. The proposed rule is applicable as a heuristic whenever the job processing times are characterized by their means and the same coefficient of variation. Simulation results show that it leads to very encouraging results when the expected makespan is minimized.

Reviews

Required fields are marked *. Your email address will not be published.