A Two-Stage Scheduling Approach on Hybrid Flow Shop with Dedicated Machine

Purpose: This study deals with a production planning and scheduling problem to minimize the total weighted tardiness on hybrid flow shop with sets of non-identical parallel machines on stages, where parallel machines in the set are dedicated to perform specific subsets of jobs and sequence-dependent setup times are also considered. Methods: A two-stage approach, that applies MILP model in the 1st stage and dispatching rules in the 2nd stage, is proposed in this paper. The MILP model is used to assign jobs to a specific machine in order to equalize the workload of the machines at each stage, while new dispatching rules are proposed and applied to sequence jobs in the queue at each stage. Results: The proposed two-stage approach was implemented by using a commercial MILP solver and a commercial simulation software and a case study was developed based on the spark plug manufacturing process, which is an automotive component, and verified using the company's actual production history. The computational experiment shows that it can reduce the tardiness when used in conjunction with the dispatching rule. Conclusion: This proposed two-stage approach can be used for HFS systems with dedicated machines, which can be evaluated in terms of tardiness and makespan. The method is expected to be used for the aggregated production planning or shop floor-level production scheduling.