On Linkage of a Flow Shop Scheduling Model Including Job Block Criteria with a Parallel Biserial Queue Network

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to establish a linkage between a flowshop scheduling model having job block criteria with a parallel biserial queue network linked with a common channel in series. The arrival and service pattern both follows Poisson law in queue network. The generating function technique, law of calculus and statistical tools have been used to find out the various characteristics of queue. Further the completion time of jobs in a queue system form the set up time for the first machine in the scheduling model. A heuristic approach to find an optimal sequence of jobs with a job block criteria with minimum total flow time when the jobs are processed in a combined system with a queue network is discussed. The proposed method is easy to understand and also provide an important tool for the decision makers when the production is done in batches. A computer programme followed by a numerical illustration is given to justify the algorithm.

Keywords: Queue Network, Mean Queue length, Waiting time, Processing time, Job-block, Makespan, Biserial Channel