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Application of a makespan improvement heuristic in the¯ow shop with multiple processors (FSMP) scheduling environment is presented. The Exchange Heuristic (EH) is a multiple-pass procedure that has successfully been utilized in the job shop and project scheduling environments. Promising FSMP application is evidenced via empirical study of two problem sets. One set consists of 653 small-to mediumsized problems with known optimal makespans and the other set consists of larger problems with 100 activities (twenty jobs and ® ve stages). Findings indicate that the EH is able to produce FSMP makespan improvements without substantial increases in computational time. Furthermore, optimal solutions to two 20-job, 5 machine FSMP problems are identi® ed and can be used as benchmarks in future studies.