Skip to main content
Log in

Makespan distribution of permutation flowshop schedules

  • Published:
Journal of Scheduling Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The makespan distribution of permutation flowshop schedules has been a topic of debate for almost fifty years. Many researchers have confirmed or doubted the famous claim that the makespan distribution of permutation flowshop schedules is asymptotically normal if the number of jobs is sufficiently large. This paper theoretically and empirically investigates the makespan distribution of permutation flowshop schedules and shows that the normality claim is not valid for the job-dominated and machine-dominated flowshops. Errors in the proof of normality of the makespan distribution of permutation flowshop schedules are pointed out. It is shown that the makespan distribution of a permutation flowshop scheduling problem depends on the number of jobs as well as the number of machines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ashour, S. (1972). Sequencing theory. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Azim, M. A., Moras, R. G., & Smith, M. L. (1989). Antithetic sequences in flow shop scheduling. Computers and Industrial Engineering, 17(1–4), 353–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caffrey, J., & Hitchings, G. (1995). Makespan distributions in flow shop scheduling. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 15(3), 50–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conway, R. W., Maxwell, W. L., & Miller, L. W. (1967). Theory of scheduling. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chung, K. L. (1954). Contributions to the theory of Markov chains, II. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 76(3), 397–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dennenbring, D. G. (1977). Procedures for estimating optimal solution value for large combinatorial problems. Management Science, 23, 1273–1283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elmaghraby, S. E. (1968). The machine sequencing problem—review and extensions. Naval Research Logistics Quarterly, 15, 205–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Framinan, J., Gupta, J. N. D., & Leisten, R. (2004). A review and classification of heuristics for the permutation flowshop with makespan objective. Journal of Operational Research Society, 55, 1243–1255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garey, M. R., & Johnson, D. S. (1979). Computers and intractability: a guide to the theory of NP-completeness. San Francisco: Freeman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giffler, B., Thompson, G. L., & Van Ness, V. (1963). Numerical experience with linear and Monte Carlo algorithms for solving scheduling problems. In J. F. Muth & G. L. Thompson (Eds.), Industrial scheduling. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, J. N. D. (1979). A review of flowshop scheduling research. In L. P. Ritzman, L. J. Krajewski, W. L. Berry, S. M. Goodman, S. T. Hardy, & L. D. Vitt (Eds.), Disaggregation problems in manufacturing and service organizations (pp. 363–388). The Hague: Nijhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, J. N. D., & Stafford, E. F. (2006). Flowshop scheduling research after five decades. European Journal of Operational Research, 169, 699–711.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, J. N. D., Smith, M. L., Martz, H. F., & Dudek, R. A. (1968). Monte Carlo experimentation with flowshop scheduling problem (Sequencing Research Report # QT-103-68). Department of Industrial Engineering, Texas Technological College, Lubbock, TX.

  • Hejazi, S. R., & Saghafian, S. (2005). Flowshop scheduling problems with makespan criterion: a review. International Journal of Production Research, 43(14), 2895–2929.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heller, J. (1959). Combinatorial, probabilistic, and statistical aspects of an MxJ scheduling problem (AEC Research and Development Report # NYO-2540). Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY.

  • Heller, J. (1960). Some numerical experiments for MxJ flow shop and its decision-theoretical aspects. Operations Research, 8(2), 178–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, S. M. (1954). Optimal two- and three-stage production schedules with setup times included. Naval Research Logistics Quarterly, 1, 61–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moras, R. G., Smith, M. L., Kumar, K. S., & Azim, M. A. (1997). Analysis of antithetic sequences in flow shop scheduling to minimize makespan. Production Planning and Control, 18(8), 780–787.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowicki, E., & Smutnicki, C. (1996). A fast tabu search algorithm for the permutation flow-shop problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 91(1), 160–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nowicki, E., & Smutnicki, C. (2006). Some aspects of scatter search in the flow-shop problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 169(2), 654–666.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nugent, C. E. (1964). On sampling approaches to the solution of n- by-m static sequencing problem. PhD dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

  • Panwalker, S. S., & Charles, O. E. (1981). Analysis of the left tail for the makespan distribution in flowshop problems. Opsearch, Journal of Operational Research Society of India, 18(4), 215–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pulle, C. V. (1976). An analysis of inter-relationship of multiple criteria in a flowshop with set-up sequence dependence. PhD dissertation, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.

  • Rinnooy Kan, A. H. G. (1977). Machine scheduling problems: classification, complexity and computations. The Hague: Nijhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taillard, E. (1990). Some efficient heuristic methods for the flow shop sequencing problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 47(1), 65–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taillard, E. (1993). Benchmarks for basic scheduling problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 64(2), 278–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, J. P., Barbulescu, L., Whitley, L. D., & Howe, A. E. (2002). Contrasting structured and random permutation flow-shop scheduling problems: search-space topology and algorithm performance. INFORMS Journal on Computing, 14(2), 98–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feng Jin.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jin, F., Gupta, J.N.D., Song, Sj. et al. Makespan distribution of permutation flowshop schedules. J Sched 11, 421–432 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-008-0071-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-008-0071-y

Keywords

Navigation