Comparison of Scheduling Rules in a Flow Shop with Multiple Processors: A Simulation

This simulation study investigated the effect on mean flow time and makespan of localized scheduling rules with dynamically established priorities in a flow shop with multiple processors. The study examined the effects of problem characteristics (number of jobs, number of machine stages and number of parallel processors at each stage) and the performance of priority rules using regression analysis. Although structural characteristics explained most of the variation in performance, priority rules also had an effect. The "shortest processing time first" rule was consistently superior; its superiority was greater for mean flow time than for makespan.