Formulation and Solution of the Drum-Buffer-Rope Constraint Scheduling Problem

This paper seeks to advance the current understanding of constraint scheduling in several ways. First, it describes the need for constraint scheduling in DBR systems. It then formally presents the production scheduling problem DBR attempts to solve and relates that formulation to prior research. Finally, it evaluates the quality of solutions produced by the solution algorithm incorporated by the Goldratt Institute (and now maintained by the TOC Center's Goal Systems Group) in their production software on a set of benchmark problems involving multiple constraints. The results show that generally good results can be obtained as long as the constraints are scheduled in the best sequence.