Assessing the effects of machine breakdowns in stochastic scheduling

In most scheduling problems discussed in the literature it is assumed that the machine (i.e. key resource) is continuously available. Plainly, this is often unrealistic. Here the authors suggest assessing the effects of machine breakdowns by evaluating the strategy which is optimal when the machine is always available as a strategy for the breakdowns case. The results extend earlier ones of the authors and co-workers.