Investigating Group-Scheduling Heuristics In The Context Of The Two-Phase Nature Of The Model In A Flow Cell

Full Citation
Helal, M., Rabelo, L. 2004. Investigating group-scheduling heuristics in the context of the two-phase nature of the model in a flow cell. IERC 04, The IIE Annual Conf., May 15-17 Houston, TX

Abstract
In the group scheduling model jobs are classified into part families according to the setting and processing requirements. The scheduling task becomes a two-phase job: to schedule part families and to schedule jobs within each part family. Several important advantages can be realized with this approach. One advantage is greatly simplifying the scheduling problem. Yet it is a NP-hard problem and heuristic algorithms are used to solve it. We have classified the published heuristics into three categories based on the complexity of the method. Further, a number of modifications have been tested to investigate the relative performance of the heuristics in a multi-family, flow line manufacturing cell. We comment on the results in the context of the two-phase nature of the group-scheduling model.
Keywords: Group scheduling, Heuristics, Tabu search, Simulated annealing, Makespan