An evaluation of scheduling heuristics for non-identical parallel processors was performed. There has been limited research that has focused on scheduling of parallel processors. This research generalizes the results from prior work in this area and examines complex scheduling rules in terms of flow time, tardiness, and proportion of tardy jobs. Several factors affecting the system were examined and scheduling heuristics were developed. These heuristics combine job allocation and job sequencing functions. A number of system features were considered in developing these heuristics, including setup times and processor utilization spread. The heuristics used different sequencing rules for job sequencing including random, Shortest Process Time (SPT), Earlier Due Date (EDD), and Smaller Slack (SS). A simulation model was developed and executed to study the system. The results of the study show that the effect of the number of machines, the number of products, system loading, and setup times were significant for all performance measures. The effect of number of machines was also found to be significant on flow time and tardiness. Several two-factor interactions were identified as significant for flow time and tardiness. The SPT-based heuristic resulted in minimum job flow times. For tardiness and proportion of tardy jobs, the EDD-based heuristic gave the best results. Based on these conclusions, a "Hybrid" heuristic that combined SPT and EDD considerations was developed to provide tradeoff between flow time and due date based measures. / Graduation date: 1995

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carnegie-Mellon University, 1983. / Bibliography: p. 147-153.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-149). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-149). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-108). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-85). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-154). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-58).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-138). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy