Some results on shop scheduling with S-precedence constraints among job tasks

Abstract

We address some special cases of job shop and flow shop scheduling problems with s-precedence constraints. Unlike the classical setting, in which precedence constraints among the tasks of a job are finish-start, here the task of a job cannot start before the task preceding it has started. We give polynomial exact algorithms for the following problems: a two-machine job shop with two jobs when recirculation is allowed (i.e., jobs can visit the same machine many times), a two-machine flow shop, and an m-machine flow shop with two jobs. We also point out some special cases whose complexity status is open.