A shifting bottleneck procedure with multiple objectives in a complex manufacturing environment

Scheduling problems have been studied extensively over the years. Broad ranges of focus areas exist, from optimization to heuristics, production planning to production sequencing, customized algorithms to general-purpose algorithms, and from simple machines to complex environments. In this research, a heuristic approach has been proposed to overcome the scheduling problem on a complex job shop found at a manufacturer of commercial building products. The research is aimed at sequencing production orders in near-real-time, primarily to minimize total tardiness, but also to reduce total setup time. A layered Shifting Bottleneck Procedure is employed, with the top layer determining release dates and due dates for individual jobs, and the bottom layer applying algorithms to individual work centers. The outcome of this research is a better production schedule than current methods with minimal computation cost. The proposed framework performs well and could be applied to other production areas.