Sequencing Theory

- concerned with an appropriate selection

of a sequence of jobs to be done on a
finite number of service facilities (like
machines)
in
some
well
defined
technological order so as to optimize
some efficiency measure such as total
elapsed
time
or
overall
cost
- Applications: Aircraft Landings, Machining,
Banking etc (Loading and Scheduling)

General Assumption
The following assumptions are generally made in sequencing
problems.
1.The processing times on different machines are independent of
the order of the job in which they are to be processed.
2.Only one job can be processed on a given machine at a time.
3.The time taken by the jobs in moving from one machine to
another is very negligible and is taken as equal to zero.
4.Each job once started on a machine is to be performed up to the
completion on that machine.
5.Machines to be used are of different types.
6.All jobs are known and are ready for processing before the period
under consideration begins.
7.Processing times are given and do not change.
8.The order of the completion of the jobs has no significance.

BASIC TERMINOLOGY
1.Number of Machines means the service facilities through which a
job must pass before it is completed. For example a book to be
published has to be processed through composing printing binding
etc. in this case the book constitutes the job and the various
processes constitute the number of machines.
2. Processing time means the time each job requires at each
machine.
3. Processing order refers to the order in which various machines are
required for completing the job.
4. Total elapsed time is the between starting the first job and
completing the last one.
5. Idle time on a machine is the time a machine remains idle during
the total elapsed time.
6. No passing rule implies that passing is not allowed i.e., the same
order of jobs is maintained over each machine. If each of the n-jobs to

(i)Only two machines A and B are involved.

(ii)Each job is processed in the order AB and
(iii)The expected processing times A1,A2,.,An, B1,B2, ., Bnare known as given below:
Job
I 1 2 3 . N
Ai A1 A2A3 . A n
Bi B1 B2 B3 . B n
Step 1. Select the smallest processing time occurring in the list A1, A2,.., An and B1,B2,.Bn. if there is a tie select
either of the smallest processing time.
Step 2.
(i) if the smallest processing time is An do the rth job first and place it at the beginning of the sequence.
(ii) if it is Bn do the sth job last of all (because of the given order AB) and place it at the end of the sequence.
This decision will apply to both machines A and B.
(i)
(a) if there is a tie for minima Ar = Bs process the rth job first and the sth one in the last.
(b) if there is a tie for minimum among Ars then do any one of these jobs for which there is a tie first.
(c ) If there is a tie for minimum among Bs then do any of these jobs in the last.
Step 3. There are now (n-1) jobs left to be ordered. Repeat step 1 and 2 to the reduced set of processing times obtained
by deleting the processing times for both machines corresponding to the job already assigned.
Step 4. Continue the process placing the jobs next to first or next to last and so on till all jobs have been assigned a
position in what is called as optimum sequence.
Step 5. After finding the optimum sequence as stated above, we can find the overall or total elapsed time and also the
idle times on machines A and B as under.

Example 1. A book binder has one printing press, one binding machine and the
manuscripts of a number of different books. The time required performing the printing
and binding operations for each book are shown below. We wish to determine the
order in which books should be processed, in order to minimize the total time
required to turn out all the books.
Book :
M1 :
M2 :

1
30
80

2
120
100

3
50
90

4
20
60

5
90
30

6
110
10

Example #2
Job
A
B
C

M1
M2

1
8
7
13

15
20

2
6
4
12

10
16

3
10
6
11

16
17

4
7
5
12

12
17

5
9
5
13

14
18

6
7
4
10

11
14