Scheduling in product oriented manufacturing systems: Comparing hybrid flowshop with parallel-machine flowshop - an industrial study

Scheduling is one of the most important decisions in production control systems. This paper explores different approaches for scheduling two stage jobs in two configurations of product oriented manufacturing systems, namely an hybrid flow shop (HFS) and a parallel machine flow shop (PMFS). An industrial case is analyzed from the automotive components industry. The HFS problem resolution is compared with PMFS one in terms of makes pan and other performance measures. The results allow concluding that the HFS performs considerably better than the PMFS.The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through the grant "Projeto Estrategico - VI 252 - 2011-2012" reference PEst-OE/EME/UI0252/2011