Dynamic scheduling using dispatching rules in a hybrid flow shop with stochastic processing times

This thesis concerns scheduling in a two stage assembly process, with a number of identical parallel workstations at each stage, known as a hybrid flow shop. Processing times and release dates are stochastic. There is a buffer at the front of the process and a buffer in between the two stages. In addition, each workstation has its own inventory, where there is room for one job. The objective of this thesis is to propose a dynamic scheduling strategy for this assembly line. To cope with the stochastic nature of the process, an event driven policy is used, meaning a new schedule is constructed every time a certain event occurs. In this case, the events are job completion or job arrival. A simulation model is used to compare several dispatching rules, for constructing a schedule.