SCHEDULING PROBLEMS - AN OVERVIEW

There seems to be a significant gap between the theoretical and the practical aspects of scheduling problems in the job shop environment. Theoretically, scheduling systems are designed on the basis of an optimum approach to the scheduling model. However in the practice, the optimum that is built into the scheduling applications seems to face some challenges when dealing with the dynamic character of a scheduling system, for instance machine breakdown or change of orders. Scheduling systems have become quite complex in the past few years. Competitive business environments and shorter product life cycles are the imminent challenges being faced by many companies these days. These challenges push companies to anticipate a demand driven supply chain in their business environment. A demand-driven supply chain incorporates the customer view into the supply chain processes. As a consequence of this, scheduling as a core process of the demand-driven supply chain must also reflect the customer view. In addition,     

Scheduling problems — An overview

There seems to be a significant gap between the theoretical and the practical aspects ofscheduling problems in the job shop environment. Theoretically, scheduling systems are designed onthe basis of an optimum approach to the scheduling model. However in the practice, the optimum thatis built into the scheduling applications seems to face some challenges when dealing with the dynamiccharacter of a scheduling system, for instance machine breakdown or change of orders. Schedulingsystems have become quite complex in the past few years. Competitive business environments andshorter product life cycles are the imminent challenges being faced by many companies these days.These challenges push companies to anticipate a demand driven supply chain in their businessenvironment. A demand-driven supply chain incorporates the customer view into the supply chainprocesses. As a consequence of this, scheduling as a core process of the demand-driven supply chainmust also reflect the customer view. In addition, other approaches to solving scheduling problems, forinstance approaches based on human factors, prefer the scheduling system to be more flexible in bothdesign and implementation. After discussion of these factors, the authors propose the integration of adifferent set of criteria for the development of“ scheduling systems which not only appears to have abetter flexibility but also increased customer-focus.