An Evaluation of Order Release Mechanisms in a Job‐shop Environment

Controlling the flow of material on the shop floor involves releasing and dispatching jobs to meet customer due‐date requirements while attempting to keep operating costs low. This report presents an evaluation of five releasing mechanisms and four dispatching rules under various levels of aggregate due‐date tightness, shop cost structure, and machine utilization using simulation. The performance criteria of total shop cost, jobs on shop floor, deviation from due dates, and job queue time are collected to demonstrate the interactive nature of releasing and dispatching on shop performance.