AbstractThe problem of partitioning a set of independent and simultaneously available jobs into batches and sequencing them for processing on a single machine is presented. Jobs in the same batch are to be delivered together, upon completion of the last job in the batch. Jobs finished before this time have to wait until delivery. There are a delivery cost depending on the number of batches formed and an earliness cost for jobs finished before delivery. The dynamic programming approach to minimizing the total cost is considered, yielding two pseudopolynomial algorithms when the number of batches has a fixed upper bound. A polynomial algorithm for a special case of the problem is also presented.