A Batching Machine Model for Lot Scheduling on a Single Machine

A recently introduced lot scheduling problem is considered. It is to find a partition of jobs of n orders into lots and to sequence these lots on a single machine so that the total average completion time of the orders is minimized. A simple O(n log n) time algorithm is presented for this problem in the literature, with a relatively sophisticated proof of its optimality. We show that modeling this problem as a classic batching machine problem makes its optimal solution obvious.