State‐dependent machine availability in scheduling

Abstract This paper addresses the field of scheduling problems with machine availability constraints. We give a systematic overview of models that cover any type of state‐dependent machine availability restriction caused by jobs or machines. This type of availability constraint has received more attention in recent Operations Research studies because it can be found in various real‐world settings. In these settings, the machine state is defined not only by the machine's continuous utilization time but also by other aspects related to machine availability. For instance, the job position in the production sequence on a given machine can have an effect on processing times, deterioration levels of machines, or the length of maintenance operations. Since, to the best of our knowledge, there is no existing systematic survey, we outline the characteristics and demarcate this type of machine availability from the mass of adjacent research. Furthermore, we present and categorize relevant literature dealing with each type of state‐dependent machine availability and discuss the relationships between these categories.