Makespan minimization for flow-shop problems with transportation times and a single robot

• Published in: Discrete Applied Mathematics Vol. 112; no. 1; pp. 199 - 216
• Main Authors: Hurink, Johann, Knust, Sigrid
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 15-09-2001; Amsterdam Elsevier; New York, NY
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Automata. Logic controller; Complexity results; Computer science; control theory; systems; Control theory. Systems; Exact sciences and technology; Flow shop; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Operational research and scientific management; Operational research. Management science; Physics; Robot; Scheduling, sequencing; Solid dynamics (ballistics, collision, multibody system, stabilization...); Solid mechanics; Transportation times; Complexity results; Flow shop; Robot; Transportation times; Transportation network; Scheduling; Makespan; Combinatorial optimization; Complexity
• ISSN: 0166-218X; 1872-6771
• DOI: 10.1016/S0166-218X(00)00316-4

In a flow-shop problem with transportation times and a single robot
n jobs consisting of
m operations have to be processed in the same order on
m machines. Additionally, transportation times are considered if a job changes from one machine to another. We assume that unlimited buffer space exists between the machines and all transportations have to be done by a single robot. The objective is to determine a feasible schedule with minimal makespan.
New complexity results are derived for special cases where the processing or transportation times are constant values. Some of these may also be interpreted as new results for special cases of the classical 3-machine flow-shop
F3||
C
max with constant processing times at certain stages.