Composite dispatching rules are of great importance in solving realistic scheduling problems because they are fast and easy to implement. The successful implementation of composite dispatching rules depends on their scaling parameter values, while further the appropriate scaling parameter values are determined by specific problem instance features, i.e. job machine factors. In this paper, a Face-centered Cube experimental design is proposed to study the impact of job machine factors on scaling parameter values when Apparent Tardiness Cost with Setups (ATCS) rule is used to schedulePm|sjk|ΣwjTjproblem. The dynamics between the job machine factors and the good scaling parameter values are revealed by experimental results.
