Optimality Criteria for Flowshop Schedules

Abstract

Abstract This article considers the problem of scheduling n jobs on M machines in a flowshop and examines the present formulation of the problem. To understand the true nature of the problem, this article provides economic interpretations of various optimality criteria which are being used for solving the scheduling problem. A general optimization criterion, called minimization of opportunity cost, is proposed for flow-shop scheduling problems and the results of the sensitivity analysis of various optimality criteria are reported which indicate the need to reformulate the scheduling problem.