The Effects of Multitasking on Operations Scheduling

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hall, Nicholas G.; Leung, Joseph Y. -T.; Li, Chung-Lun
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; New Jersey Institute of Technology; Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• DOI: 10.1111/poms.12331
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 1248-1265
• 关键词: scheduling; multitasking; polynomial time algorithm; cost and value of multitasking

摘要

This study considers a typical scheduling environment that is influenced by the behavioral phenomenon of multitasking. Under multitasking, the processing of a selected job suffers from interruption by other jobs that are available but unfinished. This situation arises in a wide variety of applications; for example, administration, manufacturing, and process and project management. Several classical solution methods for scheduling problems no longer apply in the presence of multitasking. The solvability of any scheduling problem under multitasking is no easier than that of the corresponding classical problem. We develop optimal algorithms for some fundamental and practical single machine scheduling problems with multitasking. For other problems, we show that they are computationally intractable, even though in some cases the corresponding problem in classical scheduling is efficiently solvable. We also study the cost increase and value gained due to multitasking. This analysis informs companies about how much it would be worthwhile to invest in measures to reduce or encourage multitasking.