Rainer Leisten

Review: Review and classification of hybrid flow shop scheduling problems from a production system and a solutions procedure perspective

In this paper, an extensive review of recently published papers on hybrid flow shop (HFS) scheduling problems is presented. The papers are classified first according to the HFS characteristics and production limitations considered in the respective papers. This represents a new approach to the classification of papers in the HFS environment. Second, the papers have been classified according to the solution approach proposed. These two classification categories give a comprehensive overview on the state of the art of the problem and can guide the reader with respect to future research work.

A review and classification of heuristics for permutation flow-shop scheduling with makespan objective

Stinson and Smith Cuv 1⁄4 Pm i1⁄42 jpiu pi 1;vj Cuv 1⁄4 Pm i1⁄42 fpiu pi 1;vg Cuv 1⁄4 Pm i1⁄42 jminfpiu pi 1;v þ minfðpi 1;v pi 2;vÞ; 0g; 0gj Cuv 1⁄4 Pm i1⁄42 jpiu pi 1;v þ minfðpi 1;v pi 2;vÞ; 0gj Cuv 1⁄4 Pm i1⁄42 fpiu pi 1;v þ minfðpi 1;v pi 2;vÞ; 0gg Cuv 1⁄4 Pm i1⁄42 maxfðpiu pi 1;vÞ; 0g þ 2jminfðpiu pi 1;vÞ; 0gj Widmer and Hertz Cuv 1⁄4 p1u þ Pm i1⁄41 ðm iÞjpiu pi 1;vj þ pmv Moccellin Cuv1⁄4UBX(m)uv, where UBX(1)uv1⁄4 0, and UBX(kþ 1)uv1⁄4max{0;UBX(k)uvþ (pkv pkþ 1,u)} Journal of the Operational Research Society (2005) 56, 351 r 2005 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved. 0160-5682/05

Different initial sequences for the heuristic of Nawaz, Enscore and Ham to minimize makespan, idletime or flowtime in the static permutation flowshop sequencing problem

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Comparison of heuristics for flowtime minimisation in permutation flowshops

The polynomial heuristic of Nawaz/Enscore/Ham (NEH) is one of the best heuristics to minimize makespan in static-deterministic permutation flowshop problems. The NEH approach consists of two steps: (1) the generation of an initial order of jobs with respect to an indicator value and (2) the iterative insertion of jobs into a partial sequence according to the initial order of step 1. We generalize this approach to minimization of makespan, idletime and flowtime, construct 177 different initial orders, and evaluate their performance in the NEH-insertion approach. Based on a comprehensive numerical study, we propose heuristics for all three objective functions that outperform significantly the compared literature-based heuristics.

Efficient heuristics for flowshop sequencing with the objectives of makespan and flowtime minimisation

In this paper, we address the problem of sequencing jobs in a permutation flow shop with the objective of minimising the sum of completion times or flowtime. This objective is considered to be relevant and meaningful for todays dynamic production environment, and therefore it has attracted the attention of researchers during the last years. As a result, a number of different types of heuristics have recently been developed, each one claiming to be the best for the problem. However, some of these heuristics have been independently developed and only partial comparisons among them exist. Consequently, there are no conclusive results on their relative performance. Besides, some of these types of heuristics are of a different nature and could be combined in order to obtain composite heuristics. In this paper, we first classify and conduct an extensive comparison among the existing heuristics. Secondly, based on the results of the experiments, we suggest two new composite heuristics for the problem. The subsequent computational experience shows these two heuristics to be efficient for the problem under consideration.

Total tardiness minimization in permutation flow shops: a simple approach based on a variable greedy algorithm

In this paper we analyse the performance of flowshop sequencing heuristics with respect to the objectives of makespan and flowtime minimisation. For flowtime minimisation, we propose the strategy employed by the NEH heuristic to construct partial solutions. Results show that this approach outperforms the common fast heuristics for flowtime minimisation while performing similarly or slightly worse than others which, on reward, prove to be much more CPU time-consuming. Additionally, the suggested approach is well balanced with respect to makespan and flowtime minimisation. Based on the previous results, two algorithms are proposed for the sequencing problem with multiple objectives – makespan and flowtime minimisation. These algorithms provide the decision maker with a set of heuristically efficient solutions such that he/she may choose the most suitable sequence for a given ratio between costs associated with makespan and those assigned to flowtime. Computational experience shows both algorithms to perform better than the current heuristics designed for the two-criteria problem.

Holistic scorecard: strategic performance measurement and management in the software industry

This paper addresses the problem of scheduling jobs in a permutation flowshop with the objective of minimizing the total tardiness of jobs. To tackle this problem, it is suggested that a procedure based on a greedy algorithm is employed that successively iterates over an increasing number of candidate solutions. The computational experiments carried out show this algorithm outperforms the best existing one for the problem under consideration. In addition, out some tests are carried out to analyse the efficiency of the adopted design.

A multi-objective iterated greedy search for flowshop scheduling with makespan and flowtime criteria

Purpose – Though a few critics have questioned the effectiveness of the balanced‐scorecard approach in measuring business performance this approach has taken the academic and business community by storm. However, the approach proposed by Kaplan and Norton is not all‐encompassing as they have overlooked certain critical perspectives in their scorecard. The purpose of present study is to make a small, yet significant stride, to fill this lacuna.Design/methodology/approach – The present work presents such issues and proposes a conceptual, theoretical framework, called holistic scorecard, for managing performance in the software industry. At the crux of the scorecard are six perspectives that portray a ubiquitous approach for strategic performance management.Findings – Six perspectives, as well as critical success factors and key performance indicators, are provided. The relevance of these perspectives, especially from the software industry viewpoint, has been authenticated. With respect to each perspective, ...

Available-to-promise (ATP) systems: a classification and framework for analysis

In this paper, we tackle the problem of total flowtime and makespan minimisation in a permutation flowshop. For this, we introduce a multi-criteria iterated greedy search algorithm. This algorithm iterates over a multicriteria constructive heuristic approach to yield a set of Pareto-efficient solutions (a posteriori approach). The proposed algorithm is compared against the best-so-far heuristic for the problem under consideration. The comparison shows the proposal to be very efficient for a wide number of multicriteria performance measures. Aside, an extensive computational experience is carried out in order to analyse the different parameters of the algorithm. The analysis shows the algorithm to be robust for most of the considered performance measures.

Input control and dispatching rules in a dynamic CONWIP flow-shop

Available-to-promise (ATP) systems deal with a number of managerial decisions related to order capture activities in a company, including order acceptance/rejection, due date setting, and resource scheduling. These different but interrelated decisions have often been studied in an isolated manner, and, to the best of our knowledge, no framework has been presented to integrate them into the broader perspective of order capture. This paper attempts to provide a general framework for ATP-related decisions. By doing so, we: (1) identify the different decision problems to be addressed; (2) present the different literature-based models supporting related decisions into a coherent framework; and (3) review the main contributions in the literature for each one of these. We first describe different approaches for order capture available in the literature, depending on two parameters related to the application context of ATP systems, namely the inclusion of explicit information about due dates in the decision model, and the level of integration among decisions. According to these parameters, up to six approaches for ATP-related decisions are identified. Secondly, we show the subsequent decision problems derived from the different approaches, and describe the main issues and key references involving each one of these decision problems. Finally, a number of conclusions and future research lines are discussed.