Question

For a single machine scheduling problem, what priority rule guarantees that the average (mean) flow time is minimized?

Short answer

The Shortest Processing Time (SPT) rule is the priority rule to utilize in scheduling challenges encountered by a system. Priority rules are the guidelines that assist in making specific scheduling decisions that are essential to meet a manufacturing firm's goals.

Step-by-step solution

Introduction

Scheduling refers to the planning and control of an operation's or a process's activity such that meeting production objectives becomes a simple task. Scheduling assists in organizing tasks in such a manner that the business's time, effort, and cost are reduced.

Analyze

The SPT rule stipulates that jobs or activities in production should be planned based on their processing timeframes.

It signifies that the task with the longest processing time should be planned later, and the job with the shortest processing time must always be scheduled after the current activity. This guideline strives to keep the business's mean flow rate and time as low as possible.