A Note on the Minimization of the Expected Makespan and the Expected Flow Time in M Machine Flow Shops with Blocking

Consider an m machine flow shop with blocking. The processing time of job j,j=1,..., n on each one of the m machines is equal to the same random variable $X_j$ and is distributed according to $F_i$. We assume that the processing times are stochastically ordered, i.e., $F_{1_{-st}}{<}F_{2_{st}}{<}cdots_{-st}{<}F_n$. We show that the sequence 1,3,5,...,n-1,n,n-2,...,6,4,2 when n is even and sequence 1,3,5,...,n-2,n,n-1 ... 6,4,2 when n is odd minimizes the expected makespan and that the sequence 1,...,n minimizes the expected flow time.