Printing Press Scheduling for Multi-Edition Periodicals

The problem of scheduling a printing press for a periodical with several editions, so as to minimize the costs, is discussed. A mixed-integer program is formulated which includes most of the costs and constraints, but it is not solvable for problem sizes of practical interests. A heuristic method, based on the traveling salesman problem, is proposed. A sample computation is included. In §3, a theorem proves that the' solution to the n-salesmen traveling salesman problem, is obtainable from the solution to a single salesman problem with n home visits.