This paper investigates heuristics to improve the intelligence of the head of the supply chain in a contract net framework for a multi-agent system used to solve a job shop scheduling problem. The heuristics prioritise the selection of the next operation to be scheduled and allow the head of the supply chain to intelligently influence the scheduled time for the operation. It was found that the policy of scheduling the longer operations first at the earliest time possible, then scheduling the shorter operations allowing them to be scheduled in the gaps left by the longer operations, leads to the improvement of the quality of schedule produced with respect to the objectives of meeting customer delivery deadline, minimising average batch makespan and maximising machine utilisation.
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