Fifty years of research in scheduling — Theory and applications

This paper presents an overview of scheduling research done over the last half century. The main focus is on what is typically referred to as machine scheduling. The first section describes the general framework for machine scheduling models and introduces the notation. The second section discusses the basic deterministic machine scheduling models, including single machine, parallel machines, flow shops, job shops, and open shops. The third section describes more elaborate models, including multi-objective and multi-agent scheduling models, scheduling with controllable processing times, scheduling with rejection, just-in-time scheduling, scheduling with due date assignments, time-dependent scheduling, and scheduling with batching and setups. The two subsequent sections consider scheduling under uncertainty; section four goes into online and robust scheduling and section five covers stochastic scheduling models. The next section describes a variety of important scheduling applications, including applications in manufacturing, in services, and in information processing. The last section presents the main conclusions and discusses future research directions.