A heuristic scheduling procedure for multi-item hoist production lines

The paper deals with the scheduling of production lines with respect to material handling requirements. A heuristic is proposed that is capable of handling problems incorporating different product types as well as flexible processing times. In the approach time windows are maintained for all necessary operations to exploit the remaining production capacities during the planning process. The heuristic is applied to an existing problem at a centre for metal parts in the aircraft industry. To validate the approach on a broader basis, the heuristic is furthermore tested with regard to the variation of processing times, flexibilities and the product mix. Comparisons with other methods demonstrate that the new heuristic works efficiently. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.