Shashi Bala

3-Stage Specially Structured Flow Shop Scheduling to Minimize the Rental Cost, Set Up Time Separated from Processing Time Including Transportation Time

This article describes the development of a new heuristic algorithm which guarantees an optimal solution for specially structured flow shop problem with n-jobs,3- machines, to minimize the rental cost under specified rental policy in which set up times are separated from processes time, including transformation time. Further the processing times are not merely random but bear a well defined relationship to one another. Most of literature emphasized on minimization of idle time/ make span. But minimization of make span may not always lead to minimize rental cost of machines. Objective of this work is to minimize the rental cost of machines under a specified rental policy irrespective of make span.

Specially Structured Three Stage Flowshop Scheduling to Minimize the Rental Cost

This paper pertain to a specially structured n- jobs, 3- machines flow shop scheduling in which the processing times are associated with probabilities to minimize the rental cost of the machines. Further the expected processing times are not random but bear a well defined relationship to one another. Many heuristics approaches have already been discussed in literature to minimize the makespan. But, in many cases minimization of makespan does not lead to minimum rental cost of the machines under a specified rental policy. The present work is an attempt to develop a heuristic algorithm to minimize the rental cost of the machines under a specified rental policy and will provide an important tool for the decision makers.