# Business/industrial applications of the single machine scheduling problem

There is a lot of resources talking about the applications of scheduling in business in general.

I would like to know about the applications of the particular case of single machine scheduling. Any article or software will be appreciated.

As for performance analysing, many production systems give rise to single machine models. For instance, if there is a single bottleneck in a multi-machine environment, then the job sequence at the bottleneck typically determines the performance of the entire system. In such a case, it makes sense to schedule the bottleneck first and all other operations afterwards.

As detailed scheduling, by defining a suitable objective function we can reduce WIP inventory in the production line or implying just-in-time function to decrease the late deliveries.

As CPU Scheduling, in a simple system running a single process, the time spent waiting for I/O is wasted, and those CPU cycles are lost forever. A scheduling system allows one process to use the CPU while another is waiting for I/O, thereby making full use of otherwise lost CPU cycles. The challenge is to make the overall system as "efficient" and "fair" as possible, subject to varying and often dynamic conditions.

Also, many other applications could be found in the papers or scheduling software host.

• Thanks for your answer. What do you mean exactly by bottleneck and how to detect them ? Do you have a paper suggestion that do this? – Joffrey L. Jun 4 at 8:58
• @Joffrey L., the bottleneck is a machine or facility in which it does have maximum duration/processing time rather than other machines/facilities. E.g. suppose, there are four processes in a production line and the processing time are $10$, $15$, $20$, $16$ respectively. This production line can be interpreted as a single machine schedule with the bottleneck $20$. Another approach is, four products with different the processing time should be launched in a production line. Also, this can be handled as an SMSP. In both approaches, you can analysis bottleneck to increase the performance. – A.Omidi Jun 4 at 10:48