Parallel Machine Problems

This chapter deals with scheduling of multiple machines and products under both limited and unlimited production capacity. Since the unlimited capacity problems can be decomposed into a number of one-machine, one-product problems, they are considered only in Section 6.1, for general demands over a finite planning horizon. Because the capacitated, multi-machine, scheduling problems are much harder to solve than the problems considered in the previous chapters, the objective of this chapter is to study the optimal behavior for only some special cases of scheduling parallel machines with a linear performance measure.