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 appropriate 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.