Design and operation of flexible manufacturing systems: The kingdom of heuristic methods

Although most of the decision problems related to the operation and to the design of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) may be clearly formulated, the use of exact mathematical techniques is generally not possible for various reasons. One is then led to apply so-called heuristic methods. Since many new types of optimization problems arise in FMS, there is a need for developing new heuristics. A framework for designing such procedures is presented; basic principles for developing and testing heuristic methods are presented. References are made to decision problems occurring in FMS.