New trends in parallel machine scheduling

Reviews some new trends in parallel machine scheduling (PMS). PMS, as an area of research, is governed by questions that arise in production planning, flexible manufacture systems, computer control, etc. The main characteristic of these problems is to optimize an objective, with jobs to be finished on a series of machines with the same function. Gives a short review of new developments in PMS associated with the problems of just-in-time (JIT) production, pre-emption with set-up, and capacitated machine scheduling. Discusses non-regular objectives oriented by the JIT concept; pre-emption with set-up; capacitated machine scheduling; and relationships between PMS and vehicle routeing problems.