A new mathematical programming model for scheduling flexible manufacturing systems

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:36247

MacCarthy, B; Liu, J

Flexibility is now a major consideration in the design of many manufacturing systems. Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) have been developed in the last two decades. The principal elements of an FMS are (1) computer controlled machine tools, (2) a transport system and (3) a host computer system. Such systems may combine high flexibility with high productivity and may allow unsupervised production. However, in order to achieve these benefits, the control system must be capable of exercising intelligent supervisory management. Scheduling is at the heart of the control system and is still a major problem area. This paper describes a new mathematical programming model for a wide class of FMS scheduling problems based on a new classification scheme. A global optimization approach is adopted based on a mixed-integer linear programming model. Many important aspects of operational FMS, omitted form earlier models, are included. Key elements of model structure are highlighted. Computational experience with a comprehensive set of designed experiments is described. The applications of the model are noted and the development of effective heuristic procedures based on the model is highlighted.

• OSTI ID: 36247
• Report Number(s): CONF-9408161--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ALGORITHMS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
MANUFACTURING
OPTIMIZATION
SCHEDULES