Family based dispatching with batch availability

Family based dispatching rules seek to lower set-up frequencies by grouping (batching) similar types of jobs for joint processing. Hence shop flow times may be improved, as less time is spent on set-ups. Motivated by an industrial project we study the control of machines with batch availability, i.e. all the jobs of the same batch become available for processing and leave the machine together. So far the literature seems to have neglected this type of shop by restricting its focus on machines with item availability, i.e. assuming machine operations concern single jobs. We address this gap by proposing extensions to existing family based dispatching rules. Extended rules are tested by an extensive simulation study. Best performance is found for non-exhaustive rules, which allow for alternative choices of batch size. Performance gains are highest for low set-up to run-time ratios and/or high workloads.