Scheduling theory is an important branch of operations research.
Problems studied within the framework of that theory have numerous
applications in various fields of human activity. As an independent
discipline scheduling theory appeared in the middle of the fifties, and
has attracted the attention of researchers in many countries. In the
Soviet Union, research in this direction has been mainly related to
production scheduling, especially to the development of automated
systems for production control. In 1975 Nauka ("Science") Publishers,
Moscow, issued two books providing systematic descriptions of scheduling
theory. The first one was the Russian translation of the classical book
Theory of Scheduling by American mathematicians R. W. Conway, W. L.
Maxwell and L. W. Miller. The other one was the book Introduction to
Scheduling Theory by Soviet mathematicians V. S. Tanaev and V. V.
Shkurba. These books well complement each other. Both. books well
represent major results known by that time, contain an exhaustive
bibliography on the subject. Thus, the books, as well as the Russian
translation of Computer and Job-Shop Scheduling Theory edited by E. G.
Coffman, Jr., (Nauka, 1984) have contributed to the development of
scheduling theory in the Soviet Union. Many different models, the large
number of new results make it difficult for the researchers who work in
related fields to follow the fast development of scheduling theory and
to master new methods and approaches quickly.