 A heuristic method for batch scheduling in the pharmaceutical industry with sequence-dependent setup timesPatroklos Georgiadis International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management, 2012, vol. 4, issue 3/4, 342-353 Abstract: The batch scheduling with sequence-dependent setup times is an operational problem of great importance for the pharmaceutical industry as it affects the shop performance and the provided service level. Exact solutions are a time consuming task with increased functional complexity, which calls for heuristic methods while dealing with the sequencing and scheduling of drug batches on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. This paper proposes a modified beam search method which employs dispatching rules for selecting the next batch in the sequence, and evaluates the schedule performance in terms of flow-times and due-date-based measures. The efficiency of the method is justified by using data from a pharmaceutical firm as a real-world test case. Extensive simulation experimentation reveals solutions for the firm which minimise the total setup times responding satisfactory to due-date objectives as well. In addition, it reveals insights for the sequencing and scheduling problem in the pharmaceutical industry. Keywords: batch sequencing; flow shop scheduling; sequence-dependent setup times; pharmaceutical industry; drug batches; modified beam search; dispatching rules; flow times; due dates; simulation. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijdsrm:v:4:y:2012:i:3/4:p:342-353 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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