Modified due-date scheduling heuristic
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The modified due date heuristic is used in scheduling tasks to resources (e.g. to answer the question, "what order should we make sandwiches in, so as to please our customers").
It assumes that the objective of the scheduling process is to minimise the total lateness of completing tasks. It is therefore only relevant when there are more tasks than the time available.
Assuming that you have a range of tasks, with a range of due dates (dj), and a range of times it takes to complete the tasks (pj), then in each period (t) you should do the task that has the smallest modified due date (measured in time periods from now). The modified due date is the highest of either the due date, or the completion date if you started the task now ( mddj = max( dj, t+pj ) ).