A new heuristic for integrated process planning and scheduling in reconfigurable manufacturing systems

Abstract

Integrated process planning and scheduling (IPPS) is a manufacturing strategy that considers process planning and scheduling as an integrated function rather than two separated functions performed sequentially. In this paper, we propose a new heuristic to IPPS problem for reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS). An RMS consists mainly of reconfigurable machine tools (RMTs), each with multiple configurations, and can perform different operations with different capacities. The proposed heuristic takes into account the multi-configuration nature of machines to integrate both process planning and scheduling. To illustrate the applicability and the efficiency of the proposed heuristic, a numerical example is presented where the heuristic is compared to a classical sequential process planning and scheduling strategy using a discrete-event simulation framework. The results show an advantage of the proposed heuristic over the sequential process planning and scheduling strategy.

Keywords:

• reconfigurable manufacturing systems
• integrated process planning and scheduling
• genetic algorithms
• discrete-event simulation

Notes

These research works were partially supported by the Region Lorraine, France, through the funding of Mr. Bensmaine’s PhD thesis (Oct. 2010–Nov. 2013). This support is gratefully acknowledged.