Net Present Value of Cash Flows in Single Machine and Flow Shop Scheduling Problems

While a great portion of the scheduling literature focuses on time-based criteria, the most important goal of management is maximizing the profitability of the firm. In this paper, the net preset value criterion is studied taking account of linear time-dependent cash flows in single machine and flow shop scheduling problems. First, a heuristic method is presented for the single machine scheduling problem with NPV criterion. Second, the permutation flow shop scheduling problem is studied with NPV criterion. An efficient Branch & Bound algorithm is accordingly presented using strong lower and upper bounds and dominace rules which are expanded for this problem. Finally, three heuristic methods are presented and compared to find &#10&#10appropriate solutions over short periods. By generating random problems of different sizes, it has been shown that the Branch & Bound method is efficient in solving small and medium sized problems, and also that the presented heuristic algorithm is efficient in tackling problems of any size.&#10