Scheduling: Problemes i tècniques. Una introducció

Scheduling consists in assigning resources and determining the instants of starting or ending of a set of activities, such as jobs to be processed on machines. Scheduling deals, therefore, with problems of interest to both industry and services. These problems being, with scarce exceptions, very difficult to solve, have given place, for more than sixty years, to an intense and growing research activity.

This book deals with deterministic scheduling problems that have been selected for their relevance in the development of the theory or the application. The descriptions of the problems and their solving procedures are complemented by numerical examples. To illustrate patterns of useful reasoning in theoretical developments or in applications, the book includes some demonstrations as well.

The text has been designed as a teaching material for master courses where scheduling has a relevant weight, although we think it may be useful in other environments. We have adopted an approach that integrates historical developments and recent contributions. Characteristically, we emphasize the possibility, which is illustrated by examples, of using mathematical programming as a tool for solving problems.