A two-stage flow shop scheduling with a critical machine and batch availability

We study a two-stage flowshop, where each job is processed on the first (critical) machine, and then continues to one of two second-stage (dedicated) machines. We assume identical (but machine-dependent) job processing times. Jobs are processed on the critical machine in batches, and a setup time is required when starting a new batch. The setting assumes batch-availability, i.e., jobs become available for the second stage only when their entire batch is completed on the critical machine. We consider three objective functions: minimum makespan, minimum total load, and minimum weighted flow-time. Polynomial time dynamic programming algorithms are introduced, which are numerically shown to be able to solve problems of medium size in reasonable time. A heuristic for makespan minimization is presented and shown numerically to be both accurate and efficient.