Towards the integration of flexible manufacturing system scheduling

A substantial body of research into the problems of manufacturing scheduling has been reported. Given the diversity of scheduling problems and their inherent intractability, this is not surprising. In more recent years there has been a concentration of effort on scheduling of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) as these offer a more controlled and predictable environment, even though the complexity of the problem is not reduced. This paper reviews reported research on FMS scheduling, from which it is apparent that individual contributions concentrate on application of one or two of a range of methodologies in the solution of particular subproblems of the general FMS scheduling problem. Research is categorized in terms both of the scheduling subproblems considered, and of the methodologies applied. Finally it is proposed that knowledge based simulation methods may be expected to yield integrated solutions to a broader range of FMS scheduling subproblems than has hitherto been possible.