A conceptual framework of the applicability of production scheduling from a contingency theory approach: addressing the theory-practice gap
本文用权变理论构建概念框架，指出调度理论与实践差距源于问题简化、决策过程简化和传统方法不适用所有环境，并提出调度方法与制造环境的匹配假设，通过案例验证其在高资源利用率环境中的相关性。
In the last century, there was a general perception that scheduling theory was highly irrelevant to scheduling practice. Many recent studies, however, have suggested that the applicability of scheduling approaches is highly intertwined with the manufacturing environment in which the scheduling task is carried out. In this paper we used the constructs of Contingency Theory to suggest specific fits between scheduling approaches and manufacturing environments, after suggesting that the theory-practice gap in production scheduling research has been caused by three issues: (a) simplification of scheduling problems, (b) simplification of the practical scheduling task as a decision process, and (c) lack of relevance of the traditional scheduling approach to all manufacturing environments. Furthermore, we suggest that the dynamism of the state of the system and the complexity of the scheduling problem are the two constituting vectors that define the complexity of the scheduling task. We use both vectors to identify different types of manufacturing environments and propose specific fits with scheduling approaches. Finally, we hypothesize that the fit between scheduling approaches and manufacturing environments is only relevant in environments with high resource utilization where the scheduling task could have a bigger impact on a firm's performance, and present three case studies to better exemplify the relevance of the conceptual framework.