A comparative analysis of two different approaches to scheduling in flexible flow shops

This work is an investigation about the relative effectiveness of two appro aches to scheduling in flexible flow shops: one approach advocating the pos sible use of different dispatching rules at different stages of the flow sh op, and the other suggesting the use of the same dispatching rule at all th e stages of the flow shop. In the latter approach, the dispatching rule con tains the information related to both process time and due-date. Both appro aches aim at the minimization of measures related to flowtime and tardiness of jobs. This paper essentially is an attempt at exploring the relative ef fectiveness of these two approaches to scheduling.