Stochastic Scheduling
Expectation-Variance Analysis of a Schedule

This book addresses the problem of the uncertainty of processing time in a stochastic environment.

Subhash C. Sarin (Author), Balaji Nagarajan (Author), Lingrui Liao (Author)

9781107637900, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 January 2014

208 pages, 30 b/w illus. 43 tables
25.4 x 17.8 x 1.1 cm, 0.37 kg

Stochastic scheduling is in the area of production scheduling. There is a dearth of work that analyzes the variability of schedules. In a stochastic environment, in which the processing time of a job is not known with certainty, a schedule is typically analyzed based on the expected value of a performance measure. This book addresses this problem and presents algorithms to determine the variability of a schedule under various machine configurations and objective functions. It is intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in manufacturing, operations management, applied mathematics, and computer science, and it is also a good reference book for practitioners. Computer software containing the algorithms is provided on an accompanying website for ease of student and user implementation.

1. Introduction
2. Robust scheduling approaches to hedge against processing time uncertainty
3. Expectation-variance analysis in stochastic multi-objective scheduling
4. Single machine models
5. Flow shop models
6. Job shop models
7. The case of general processing time distribution
8. Concluding remarks.

Subject Areas: Automatic control engineering [TJFM], Mechanical engineering & materials [TG], Optimization [PBU]