Integration of Simulation Modeling and Comparison of Scheduling Methods to Minimize the Makespan in a Printing Industry

Abstract:

This paper considers the problem of scheduling production activities in a real-life printing industry. The problem is modeled as a two-stage flexible flow shop problem with minimization of the makespan and the number of tardy jobs as the objective. Discrete event simulation has been performed using Extend simulation software to depict the real time model of the print industry. The setup time, processing time and completion time of the prioritized customers were obtained and validated with the real time industry inputs. After validation, the output of simulation data has been used to perform preliminary scheduling experiments. This paper deals with the comparison of three scheduling algorithms such as earliest completion time first (ECT), Earliest start time first (EST) and PCmax algorithm for the calculation of maximum occupancy time of various printing jobs. The results obtained using PC max shows the reduced make span of the printing jobs compared to other two algorithms with approximately 12% improvement in minimizing the makespan. Hence the P||Cmax scheduling method can be implemented in the industry to minimize the maximum occupancy time of a particular printing machine. This motivates the actual implementation of the proposed ILP (PCmax scheduling) procedure for the printing industry.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 488-489)
• Pages: 1119-1124
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.488-489.1119
• Online since: March 2012
• Authors: V. Govindarajalu, V.S. Senthil Kumar
• Keywords: Earliest Completion Time, Earliest Start Time, Make Span, Minimization, P||C_max, Print Industry, Scheduling, Simulation

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