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THE ASSIGNMENT OF MEN TO MACHINES: AN APPLICATION OF BRANCH AND BOUND
Author(s) -
Miller Jeffrey G.,
Berry William L.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.1977.tb01067.x
Subject(s) - computer science , branch and bound , idle , service (business) , operator (biology) , upper and lower bounds , mathematical optimization , operations research , algorithm , mathematics , economics , economy , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , repressor , transcription factor , gene , operating system , chemistry
This paper presents a branch and bound algorithm for assigning men to machines in a production system. The labor assignment problem of concern in this paper occurs when 1) a single operator can service several semi‐automatic machines simultaneously, 2) the service and machine processing times are different among the machines and are deterministic, 3) a strict cyclic service discipline is assumed, and 4) the combined costs of idle labor and machine time are to be minimized. The paper includes a formal definition of the labor assignment problem, a description of the branch and bound algorithm, and a discussion of the computational experience with the algorithm.