ON AN AUTOMATED TWO-MACHINE FLOWSHOP SCHEDULING PROBLEM WITH INFINITE BUFFER

A new flowshop scheduling problem related to automated manufacturing systelIls such as FMS's and FMC's is discussed. The problem is shown to be an extension of the two-machine f10wship problem addressed by Johnson (or a special case of the three machine flows hop problem), and to be NP-hard. Some solvable cases are discussed.