Scheduling no-wait production with time windows and flexible processing times

This paper presents a low-complexity algorithm for online job scheduling at workcenters along a given route in a manufacturing system. At each workcenter, the job has to be processed by any one of a given set of identical machines. Each machine has a preset schedule of operations, leaving out time-windows during which the job´s processing must be scheduled. The manufacturing system has no internal buffers and the job cannot wait between two consecutive operations. There is some flexibility in the job´s processing times, which must be confined to given time intervals. The scheduling algorithm minimizes the job´s completion time, and it is executable in real time whenever the job requirement is generated