Sequence dependent set-up times and job sequencing

On many machine tools the set-up times are sequence dependent; that is, the time to set-up for the new part is dependent upon the part for -which the machine is currently set-up. In scheduling lots on the machine, the set-up time is often a significant component of the total time required to complete each lot. Set-up times are frequently not available to the production scheduler, and when they are, they frequently are only averages which conceal the sequence dependency of the set-up times. In this paper, we first develop a procedure that classifies set-up operations and predicts the set-up times and we then develop a method for sequencing the jobs so as to minimize the total set-up time. An example using real world data is used to illustrate these procedures