Research Reports from the Department of Operations
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
3-1-1984
Abstract
Scheduling involves the allocation of resources over time to perform tasks and is a crucial aspect of managerial decision-making. While heuristic scheduling rules are commonly used, their effectiveness and potential alternatives are often not well understood. This memorandum explores job shop scheduling, a critical component of short-term decision-making in industrial production, and its broader applicability to sectors such as healthcare, education, and logistics. Job shop scheduling addresses detailed operations following aggregate planning, employing practical dispatching heuristics to manage dynamic, complex environments. The Shortest Processing Time (SPT) rule is highly effective for minimizing work-in-progress but may delay some orders significantly. For meeting due dates, slack time indexing offers a reliable approach. Superior dispatching strategies often combine these methods, balancing efficiency and timeliness. As mathematical and computational models become increasingly sophisticated, the gap between theoretical scheduling research and practical managerial application continues to narrow.
Keywords
Operations research, Scheduling--Mathematical models, Job shops--Management, Production scheduling, Heuristic algorithms, Decision making--Mathematical models
Publication Title
Technical Memorandums from the Department of Operations, School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
Issue
Technical memorandum no. 535
Rights
This work is in the public domain and may be freely downloaded for personal or academic use
Recommended Citation
Emmons, Hamilton, "Scheduling and Sequencing Algorithms" (1984). Research Reports from the Department of Operations. 495.
https://commons.case.edu/wsom-ops-reports/495