Evaluating scheduling policies in a multi-level assembly system

This paper orders in preference various scheduling policies comprised of dispatching and regeneration rules in a multi-level assembly production system. Traditional expected-value statistical and second-degree stochastic dominance preference ordering rules are used to identify the most efficient scheduling policies for risk-averse managers using various measures of performance. The results indicate that selection of an efficient regeneration rule is contingent upon the selection of a dispatching rule and these rules must be selected jointly to develop efficient scheduling policies. For this study, simple intuitively appealing scheduling policies were found to be efficient. Article: IMTRODUCTION Owing to the pressures created by the economic environment and the loss of markets to competition from countries throughout the world there is a renewed interest in the theory and practice of production scheduling and inventory man- agement. High interest rates and disinflation have intensified the strategic role of production scheduling in managing the substantial costs of inventories. Additionally, the importance of production scheduling fo