Research On Supply Chain Scheduling: Theories, Models

During the recent five years, Supply Chain Scheduling (SCS) has become one of the hot problems in Supply Chain Management (SCM). SCS studies jointly or coordinated scheduling problems through supply chain that includes suppliers, manufacturer, distributors and third party logistics. By information sharing and cooperation among members in supply chain, joint scheduling models of the whole system are developed, which not only shorten the lead time, improve customer service level, but also lower the operations cost of the entire supply chain.First, fundamental theories about SCS are completely presented, which include supply chain coordination and production scheduling. The relationship between these theories are also analyzed and summarized.Second, single machine scheduling based SCS models are studied. Single-objective and multi-objective optimization models are developed respectively. Polynomial time exact algorithms are designed by dynamic programming and dispatching rules and then are tested by case study.Third, parallel machine scheduling based SCS models are studied. Multi-objective optimization models are developed. Polynomial time heuristic algorithms are designed by dynamic programming and dispatching rules and then are tested by case study.Last, two-machine flow shop scheduling based SCS models are studied. Multi-objective optimization models are developed. Polynomial time exact algorithms are designed by dynamic programming and dispatching rules and then are tested by case study.