Walter, R.R.WalterWirth, M.M.WirthLawrinenko, A.A.Lawrinenko2022-03-052022-03-052017https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/24594310.1007/s10951-016-0477-x2-s2.0-84964269856For the basic problem of scheduling a set of n independent jobs on a set of m identical parallel machines with the objective of maximizing the minimum machine completion timeâalso referred to as machine coveringâwe propose a new exact branch-and-bound algorithm. Its most distinctive components are a different symmetry-breaking solution representation, enhanced lower and upper bounds, and effective novel dominance criteria derived from structural patterns of optimal schedules. Results of a comprehensive computational study conducted on benchmark instances attest to the effectiveness of our approach, particularly for small ratios of n to m.enjournal article