Planning for machining in a multijob, multimachine manufacturing environment

Planning for the scheduling and machining of n jobs through m nonidentical parallel machines is a common manufacturing problem. In this paper, a promising new approach to simultaneously obtain the solution to the machine parameter optimization and scheduling problems in n jobs and m machines manufacturing system is presented. The paper subscribes to the view that in order to optimally utilize the machine resources in a shop, the decision of allocating jobs to machines must be mades simultaneously with the decision of how a job should be processed on the machine to which it is assigned. A mathematical based planning model combined with a heuristic solution procedure is used for solving the problem. An example illustrating the use of the model and how the solution procedure compares with a branch and bound based technique is given. The implications of the proposed method when used as an integral component of a computer aided process planning (CAPP) systems is outlined.