Article ID: | iaor1993120 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 30 |
Issue: | 8 |
Start Page Number: | 1819 |
End Page Number: | 1830 |
Publication Date: | Aug 1992 |
Journal: | International Journal of Production Research |
Authors: | Bedworth David D., Cao Jing |
Keywords: | simulation: applications |
Short-term production scheduling is a widely seen problem in multi-product batch operations. In this paper, an effective heuristic algorithm for scheduling a set of different tasks to be processed on serial processors is presented that provides an approach towards minimizing the entire makespan and improving productivity. Flow shops with an interstage storage policy, non-zero transfer times, and non-zero setup times are considered. The performance of the proposed algorithm was evaluated through numerous simulated problems. Statistical analysis of the output data indicates that in the situation containing up to seven tasks, the algorithm provides optimal or near optimal solutions and needs very short computation time. For a larger number of tasks, it gives up to 20% better solutions than a well-known existing algorithm.