Cooperative dispatching – exploiting the flexibility of a flexible manufacturing system by means of incremental optimization

We present a new control scheme for releasing parts into a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) that is based on incremental optimization. Our objective is to exploit the available routing flexibility of parts in an enhanced manner by viewing part release as an assignment problem using system status information. In particular, we propose an ‘intelligent’ part release mechanism with some look-ahead and optimization features in order to allow for optimization-based ‘cooperation’ of workcenters. The cooperative dispatching concept is implemented in an object-oriented computer simulation model, and experiments with a varying degree of average routing flexibility are performed. The experimental results are used for a statistical analysis of the benefits of cooperative dispatching versus the common approach of standard dispatching. Finally, we investigate the robustness of the presented FMS control scheme in the case of random machine breakdowns.