A Brick Factory
A brick factory uses a single oven to fire batches of bricks. Five orders — A, B, C, D, and E — must each be scheduled as a single, uninterrupted activity within an 11-day planning horizon. Each order specifies how many batches it requires per day and how many days it runs:
| Order | Batches per day | Duration (days) |
|---|---|---|
| A | 2 | 1 |
| B | 1 | 4 |
| C | 1 | 4 |
| D | 1 | 2 |
| E | 2 | 4 |
The oven’s batch capacity is not constant — it varies over time according to the following schedule:
| Days | Capacity (batches) |
|---|---|
| 0–1 | 2 |
| 1–3 | 1 |
| 3–5 | 1 |
| 5–10 | 3 |
| 10–11 | 1 |
At every point in time, the total number of batches from all orders running concurrently must not exceed the oven’s available capacity at that moment.
Goal: Find a start time for each of the five orders (within the 11-day horizon) so that the oven’s time-varying capacity is never exceeded.
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Solutions:
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