Abstract
A continuous-time flexible manufacturing and operator scheduling problem is introduced and solved. The principle concern is with scheduling operators over time to various activities of a manufacturing system with the purpose of optimizing some steady-state criterion. In mathematical terms the problem is modeled as a deterministic, infinite-horizon, continuous-time discrete dynamic program. Our solution procedure is to convexify the problem to obtain a linear program and then to deconvexify the solution of the linear program over time to arrive at an optimal solution which is periodic and piecewise constant. Apparent loss in object value due to the deconvexifications is circumvented with buffer inventories. The procedure can be reduced to solving a sequence of linear programs, and the complexity can be stated in these terms.
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