• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.22-31
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• 2015

In this paper, a two-stage hybrid flow shop problem is considered. Specifically, there exist identical parallel machines at stage 1 and two dedicated machines at stage 2, and the objective of the problem is to minimize makespan. After being processed by any machine at stage 1, a job must be processed by a specific machine at stage 2 depending on the job type, and one type of jobs can have different processing times on each machine. First, we introduce the problem and establish complexity of several variations of the problem. For some special cases, we develop optimal polynomial time solution procedures. Then, we establish some simple lower bounds for the problem. In order to solve this NP-hard problem, three heuristics based on simple rules such as the Johnson's rule and the LPT (Longest Processing Time first) rule are developed. For each of the heuristics, we provide some theoretical analysis and find some worst case bound on relative error. Finally, we empirically evaluate the heuristics.

• Management Science and Financial Engineering
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.47-77
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• 2007

This paper considers a scheduling problem where a customer orders multiple products(jobs) from a production facility. The objective is to minimize the sum of the order(batch) completion times. While a machine can process only one job at a time, multiple machines can simultaneously process jobs in a batch. Although each job has a unique processing time, we consider the case where batch processing times are identical. This simplification allows us to develop heuristics with improved performance bounds. This problem was motivated by a real world problem encountered by foreign electronics manufacturers. We first establish the complexity of the problem. For the two parallel machine case, we introduce two simple but intuitive heuristics, and find their worst case relative error bounds. One bound is tight and the other bound goes to 1 as the number of orders goes to infinity. However, neither heuristic is superior for all instances. We extend one of the heuristics to an arbitrary number of parallel machines. For a fixed number of parallel machines, we find a worst case bound which goes to 1 as the number of orders goes to infinity. Then, a tighter bound is found for the three parallel machine case. Finally, the heuristics are empirically evaluated.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.32-40
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• 2016

This paper considers a special case of a three machine flow shop scheduling problem in which operation processing time of each job is ordered such that machine 1 has the longest processing time, whereas machine 3, the shortest processing time. The objective of the problem is the minimization of the total completion time. Although the problem is simple, its complexity is yet to be established to our best knowledge. This paper first introduces the problem and presents some optimal properties of the problem. Then, it establishes several special cases in which a polynomial-time optimal solution procedure can be found. In addition, the paper proves that the recognition version of the problem is at least binary NP-complete. The complexity of the problem has been open despite its simple structure and this paper finally establishes its complexity. Finally, a simple and intuitive heuristic is developed and the tight worst case bound on relative error of 6/5 is established.

• Management Science and Financial Engineering
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.69-100
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• 2009

In this paper, we consider a relatively new two-machine flow shop scheduling problem where the unit time WIP cost increases as a job passes through various stages in the production process, and the objective is to minimize the total WIP (work-in-process) cost. Specifically, we study three special cases of the problem. First, we consider the problem where processing times on machine 1 are identical. Second, the problem with identical processing times on machine 2 is examined. The recognition version of the both problems is unary NP-complete (or NP-complete in strong sense). For each problem, we suggest two simple and intuitive heuristics and find the worst case bound on relative error. Third, we consider the problem where the processing time of a job on each machine is proportional to a base processing time. For this problem, we show that a known heuristic finds an optimal schedule.

• Management Science and Financial Engineering
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.95-116
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• 2011

This paper considers a flowshop scheduling problem where a customer orders multiple products (jobs) from a production facility. The objectives are to minimize makespan and to minimize the sum of order (batch) completion times. The order cannot be shipped unless all the products in the order are manufactured. This problem was motivated by numerous real world problems encountered by a variety of manufacturers. For the makespan objective, we develop an optimal solution procedure which runs in polynomial time. For the sum of order completion time objective, we establish the complexity of the problem including several special cases. Then, we introduce a simple heuristic and find an asymptotically tight worst case bound on relative error. Finally, we conclude the paper with some implications.