Priority dispatching rules in job shops with assembly operations and random delays

The article reports the results of an experimental investigation into priority dispatching rules for a job shop with assembly operations. A job is made up of several parts, where parts are individual entities requiring several operations in different machine centres. The study was directed towards rules which attempt to co-ordinate the completion time of parts required in the same job. This mainly involves rules that utilise job status information such as operation float, number of parts completed, and number of operations remaining on each part. Results indicate that job status information improves most of the measures of performance used.

Dynamic aspects of line balancing

The article explores the dynamic nature of line balancing. Models are developed to help management with the problem of manning a line to produce a specified output. The models quantify the fluctuations in both excess inventories and the number of operators required.