Evaluation and comparison of production schedules

The understanding of what constitutes a "good" production schedule is centr al to the development and evaluation of automated scheduling systems and th eir implementation in real-world factories. In this paper, we provide a def inition of a schedule and discuss potential uses for a schedule within the organization. We then describe a number of different considerations that mu st be taken into account when assessing the quality of a schedule, and disc uss their implications for the design and implementation of scheduling syst ems. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.