Integration of priority dispatching and due-date assignment in a job shop

A simulation study to investigate the effect on missed due-dates and job flow-time is discussed by combining the job dispatching and due-date assignment decisions in job shop scheduling. A ‘semi-local’ due-date-oriented dispatching rule is designed which is able to monitor the progress of jobs closely. The performance of the dispatching rule is enhanced by a rational due-date assignment procedure which takes account of both job content and shop status information in determining due-dates. The simulation results show that the combined scheduling procedure performs better than some common simple dispatching rules which are used with the total-work-content (TWK) due-date assignment method.