Assignment Questions: INDAL Belur Works

1. Consider the following simplified version of the preheater-hot rolling interface. Assume the preheater
can process ingots in a batch of 2 whereas the hot roller is a discrete processor. There are 4 ingots to be
processed at preheater followed by the hot roller. The processing times for the 4 jobs are as shown in
Table 1. The heating time for a batch of ingots at the preheater is the maximum of heating times of
individual ingots. All jobs are to be delivered in a batch, which has a due date of 10.
Table 1: Processing times of 4 jobs on 2 machines
Jobs
Machine M1
Machine M2
J1
8
8
J2
7
1
J3
9
1
J4
7
1
Find the makespan, maximum lateness, total batch operation times (TBOT) and idle times on the two
machines for all possible combinations of job allocations and sequences on M1 shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Schedule Performance
Allocation and Sequence Makespan
Lmax
TBOT
(J1, J2) (J3, J4)
(J1, J3) (J2, J4)
(J1, J4) (J2, J3)
(J3, J4) (J1, J2)
(J2, J4) (J1, J3)
(J2, J3) (J1, J4)

I1

I2

Assume the power consumed by machine j per unit time, when in operation, is given by aj. It may be
desirable to still keep the machines on when they are idling since there is significant loss of energy in too
frequent switching on and off of the machines. However, the machines consume less power when idling.
The power consumption per unit time by machine j when it is idling is given by bj. Find the total power
consumptions under the different allocation and sequence for different combinations of aj and bj.

Allocation and
Sequence
(J1, J2) (J3, J4)
(J1, J3) (J2, J4)
(J1, J4) (J2, J3)
(J3, J4) (J1, J2)
(J2, J4) (J1, J3)
(J2, J3) (J1, J4)

Table 3: Power Consumption

a1 = a2 = 5
a1 = a2 = 10
b1 =b2 = 1
b1 =b2 = 1

a1 = 10, a2 = 5
b1 =b2 = 1

Is there a conflict between the objectives of minimization of power consumption and maximization of
delivery performance?

2. Now assume the following processing times for 2 jobs on the two machines (in series). The heating
time for a batch of ingots at the preheater is the maximum of heating times of individual ingots. Both
the jobs are to be delivered in a batch, which has a due date of 5.

Job
J1
J2

Table 4: Processing time data of 2 jobs on 2 machines

M1
M2
1
2
3
3

Assume the preheater (M1) can process ingots in full batch (2 ingots) or in partial batch (1 ingot). Find the
total power consumption for full versus partial loading of the preheater for the various combinations of aj
and bj
Table 5: Power Consumption in Full and Partial Loading
Allocation and
a1 = a2 = 5
a1 = a2 = 10
a1 = a2 = 1.2
Sequence
b1=b2=1
b1=b2=1
b1=b2=1
Full
Partial
Would you recommend partial loading (1 ingot) of the preheater?