Production activity control: A practical approach to scheduling

There is a widely perceived gap within the domain of scheduling for manufacturing systems, namely, many of the methods employed by production supervisors are quite different from those developed by researchers. In a sense, this inconsistency highlights the important fact that much scheduling research has failed to win approval where it matters most, namely, within the manufacturing system. In this article, the authors argue for a practical approach to scheduling for manufacturing systems, one that they believe can narrow, and possibly bridge, the gap between theory and practice. This approach is based upon a well-defined and modular architecture for scheduling, termed production activity control. This architecture is the foundation of the present proposed solution to scheduling, since it provides a coherent blueprint for the synthesis of information technology and scheduling strategies. The result of this synthesis is a design tool for production activity control, which allows for detailed and disciplined experimentation with a range of scheduling strategies in a controlled and simulated environment. Due to the unique modular property of the design tool, these strategies may then be implemented live in a flexible manufacturing facility, hence narrowing the gap between scheduling theory and manufacturing practice. The present overall approach is tested through an appropriate implementation in a modern electronics assembly plant.