Earliest due date is a shop floor dispatching (sequencing) rule that relates the time available to complete a job to the amount of work left to be completed.

Earliest Due Date

A scheduling method that prioritizes tasks or orders based on the earliest due date.

Shop Floor Dispatching

The process of scheduling and controlling work and workloads on the manufacturing or production floor in real-time.

Time Available

The total amount of time that can be utilized for a specific purpose or task, often factoring in operational hours and capacity constraints.