Coupling scheduling methods and discrete event simulation for scheduling surface treatment in industrial systems

This paper deals with the entry date computation of incoming components in a surface treatment plant. The aim is to increase the number of components that are treated during a given time. Because the objective function is not easily analytically known, the authors carry out a scheduling method-discrete event simulation coupling. The used methods are a specific heuristic they propose and the iterative improvement algorithm. These methods provide them with schedules that are evaluated using deterministic simulation. Although the scheduling problem is NP-hard, acceptable schedules are computed in a few minutes. The efficiency of the scheduling methods is then compared. Finally, the transport constraints having been considered, the authors plan to integrate coupled methods in the plant control system for both the piloting aid and the planning aid when unexpected events occur.