Considering the characteristics of dyeing vat scheduling problem, such as complex constraints, large task scales, high efficiency request, an incremental dyeing vat scheduling model was established and the Slide Time Window Scheduling heuristic (STWS) algorithm was proposed to improve the applicability of the problem model and the algorithm in real scenario. In order to meet the optimization target of minimizing delay cost, washing cost and the switching cost of dyeing vat, the heuristic scheduling rules were applied to schedule the products according to the priority order. For each product scheduling, the dynamic combination batch algorithm and the batch split algorithm were used to divide batches, and then the batch optimal sorting algorithm was used to schedule the batches. The simulated scheduling results on actual production data provided by a dyeing enterprise show that the algorithm can complete the scheduling for monthly plan within 10 s. Compared with the manual scheduling, the proposed algorithm improves the scheduling efficiency and significantly optimizes three objectives. Additionally, experiments on incremental scheduling show obvious optimization of the algorithm on reducing the washing cost and the switching cost of dyeing vat. All the results indicate that the proposed algorithm has excellent scheduling ability.