Example 1

Suppose we have five jobs, each of which has to be processed on two machines A & B in
the order AB. Processing times are given in the following table:

Machine Machine
Job
A B
1 6 3
2 2 7
3 10 8
4 4 9
5 11 5

Determine an order in which these jobs should be processed so as to minimize the total
processing time.

"The time is the most valuable thing."

-Vinay Chhabra & Manish Dewan

Solution.

The minimum time in the above table is 2, which corresponds to job 2 on machine A.

Now we eliminate job 2 from further consideration. The reduced set of processing times
are as follows:

Machine Machine
Job
A B
1 6 3
3 10 8
4 4 9
5 11 5

The minimum time is 3 for job 1 on machine B. Therefore, this job would be done in last.
The allocation of jobs till this stage would be

2 1

After deletion of job 1, the reduced set of processing times are as follows:

Machine Machine
Job
A B
3 10 8
4 4 9
5 11 5

Similarly, by repeating the above steps, the optimal sequence is as follows:

2 4 3 5 1

Once the optimal sequence is obtained, the minimum elapsed time may be calculated as
follows:

Machine A Machine B
Job
Time in Time out Time in Time out
2 0 2 2 9
4 2 6 9 18
3 6 16 18 26
5 16 27 27 32
1 27 33 33 36

Idle time for machine A = total elapsed time - time when the last job is out of machine A
36 - 33 = 3 hours
Idle time for machine B = Time at which the first job in a sequence finishes on machine

A+ {( time when the ith job starts on machine B) - (time when the (i -1)th finishes
on machine B)}

Idle time for machine B = 2 + (9 - 9) + (18 - 18) + (27 - 26) + (33 - 32) = 4 hours
 Example 2

Strong Book Binder has one printing machine, one binding machine, and the manuscripts
of a number of different books. Processing times are given in the following table:

Time In Hours
Book
Printing Binding
A 5 2
B 1 6
C 9 7
D 3 8
E 10 4

We wish to determine the order in which books should be processed on the machines, in
order to minimize the total time required.

Solution.

The minimum time in the above table is 1, which corresponds to the book B on printing
machine.

Now book B is eliminated. The reduced set of processing times are as follows:

Time In Hours
Book
Printing Binding
A 5 2
C 9 7
D 3 8
E 10 4

The minimum time is 2 for book A on binding machine. Therefore, this job should be
done in last. The allocation of jobs till this stage is:

B A

The reduced set of processing times are as follows:

 Time In Hours
Book
Printing Binding
C 9 7
D 3 8
E 10 4

Similarly, by repeating the above steps, the optimal sequence is as follows:

B D C E A

Once the optimal sequence is obtained, the minimum elapsed time may be calculated as
follows:

Printing Binding
Book
Time in Time out Time in Time out
B 0 1 1 7
D 1 4 7 15
C 4 13 15 22
E 13 23 23 27
A 23 28 28 30

Idle time for printing process = total elapsed time - time when the last job is out of
machine A
30 - 28 = 2 hours
Idle time for binding process = 1 + (7 - 7) + (15 - 15) + (23 - 22) + (28 - 27) = 3 hours