Due-Dates and Instantaneous Load in the One-Machine Shop

The due-date assignment problem occurs when due-dates are assigned within, rather than outside, a job shop. This study explores the importance of instantaneous and future shop loads in setting due-dates in shops operating under due-date dependent queue discipline. The assignment of due-dates to arriving jobs in an m-machine shop is formulated as a stochastic dynamic programming problem in the first part of this study. A computational experiment using dynamic programming is performed in the second part and due-dates are developed for specific instantaneous load conditions in a simulated one-machine shop. The importance of instantaneous and future shop loads for assigning due-dates in a one-machine shop, with constant interarrivals and exponential service times, is shown.