Dynamic scheduling of batch servers with compatible product families

Dynamic scheduling is considered for batch processing machines. Research is motivated by the burn-in ovens found in semiconductor manufacturing. So far, research in this field has concentrated on control strategies that assume batches to be homogeneous, i.e. products should all belong to the same family. However, burn-in ovens may allow simultaneous processing of alternative families of products. Each family may set different requirements to processing times. The processing time of a batch is equal to the longest processing time required among all products in the batch. A new scheduling approach is proposed that addresses these situations. The objective is to minimize average flow time per product for the batch operation. The so-called look-ahead strategy adapts its scheduling decision to shop status, which includes information on a limited number of near future arrivals. The potential of the new strategy is demonstrated by an extensive simulation study.