This paper considers problems that arise in scheduling cyclic production of different parts on several identical machines where the cycle times are of the form kiw, with i varying only with each part. First we derive a simple necessary and sufficient condition for scheduling one machine when the production times of all jobs are identical. Then we describe three conditions, any one of which ensures that if a feasible schedule on M machines exists, then a schedule also exists in which each part always executes on the same machine. These conditions can be used to motivate heuristics to address the scheduling problem.
['William L. Maxwell', 'Harpal Singh']
Scheduling Cyclic Production on Several Identical Machines