Abstract: Three new approaches is presented to the simultaneous production planning and scheduling problem in automobile assembly workshops. First of all, an automobile assembly line is simplified into a flow shop, its mixed integer programming model is formulated to obtain a rough production plan by minimizing the overproduction, underproduction, set-up and leisure time. On the basis of the obtained rough productionplan, three different heuristic algorithms combining Tabu search with quick schedule simulation are used to optimize the production plans and schedules simultaneously, with more details of the assembly line being considered. The computational complexity of each algorithm is also given. Comparison between many computational examples of these algorithms is carried out, the result confirms their effectiveness and adaptability.