Scheduling a dynamic flowshop to minimize the mean absolute deviation from distinct due dates

A dynamic fowshop, where new job orders continuously arrive over the scheduling horizon, is considered in this study. The objective is to minimize the mean deviation from the due dates for the completed jobs. A cooperative dispatching approach is investigated for this objective, and its performance evaluated by comparison with other dispatching rules. The results from the comparative study indicate that the cooperative dispatching performs generally better than other dispatching rules for problems that are characterized by moderate to low due date tightness levels. In those instances where the jobs have moderately tight due dates, the cooperative dispatching approach produces mean absolute deviations that range between about 7 to 10% lower than the next best performing dispatching rule, across varying shop floor congestion levels.