Adaptive flow control in flexible flow shop production systems: a knowledge-based approach

Today simulation is essential when researching manufacturing processes or designing production systems. But in the field of manufacturing, simulation can not only be used for purposes of research or design, it can also be utilized by flow control systems in order to make better and faster decisions. In this paper we focus on real-time scheduling in a special kind of flexible flow shop systems. These consist of production stages, which represent groups of machines doing the same work, but working at different speeds. Flow control in these flexible flow shop environments with uniform machines is exceedingly complex and it is even more complex when uncertainties are taken into consideration. For this reason we develop an adaptive scheduling heuristic, utilizing both simulation and artificial intelligence in order to make globally good decisions without causing noticeable manufacturing delays.