Constructing near optimal schedules for the flow-shop lot streaming problem with sublot-attached setups. (English) Zbl 1046.90025

Kalir, Adar A.; Sarin, Subhash C.

J. Comb. Optim. 7, No. 1, 23-44 (2003).

Summary: Lot streaming – the process of splitting a production lot into sublots – has been a common practice in flow-shop systems during the past decade. Nevertheless, a major limiting assumption has been made in the analysis of these systems in that the setup time is, at most, lot-attached but not sublot-attached. In this paper, we consider the single and multiple batch flow-shop lot-streaming problems with sublot-attached setup times. A fast, optimal solution algorithm for the single batch problem is presented. For the multiple batch problem, we propose a near optimal solution procedure which is optimal in two-machine flow-shops. Computational results are also presented for the multiple batch problem which indicate both the efficiency and effectiveness of this procedure.

MSC:

90B30	Production models
90C27	Combinatorial optimization
90B35	Deterministic scheduling theory in operations research

Keywords:

lot streaming; flow-shop; optimization