Manufacturing have been constantly challenged to increase process productivity while maintaining quality, safety and production risks at a reasonable level. Engineered wood products is one of the most thriving and dynamic manufacturing sectors in British Columbia, which is also confronted with declining productivity levels. Cross-laminated timber (CLT), an engineered wood product used in the construction industry, have been consistently growing in North America in the past few years. Despite its market relevance, wide technical applicability and performance, and although literature is vast and comprehensive in the field of applied manufacturing scheduling, CLT flow shop production lines are yet to be tackled. CLT manufacturing process involve customized panels and an extraordinary variety of features that can be incorporated into CLT products, leading to unknown process times, presenting an increased complexity to this system’s schedule optimization.
